“Lending dropped massively. Until banks are able to access funds from abroad and until they begin to see a decline in nonperforming loans, they will maintain the low pace of lending. The difference does not lie in one-two granted loans. We cannot sustain economic growth with this,” Ionescu added.
Coface’s General Manager said that Romania will continue to witness a correction of the economy, and that the increase in the number of unemployed will drive up the number of nonperforming loans.
“The first quarter of 2010 will be a sad one. There will be silence with an echo, because we will witness a drastic decline in consumption. We will be able to talk about a growth rate of some one percent in the second or third quarter of 2010, in quarterly terms,” Ionescu indicated.
The Coface official’s estimates come in the context of an 86 percent drop in the company’s net profit in the first eight months of this year, compared to the corresponding period in 2008, to RON 243,000 (some €57,000).
