BOFIT Weekly Review 2015/24
Loan stock growth stalls for Russian banking sector
The stocks of both corporate loans and loans granted to households contracted in the first four months of this year. SMEs, in particular, found it hard to get bank financing. At the end of April, SMEs accounted for 18 % of banks’ corporate loan stocks, down from 22 % in April 2014.
In annual terms, the loan stock still increased, but the growth was lower than previously. In January-April, the stock of corporate loans was up 17 % y-o-y and the stock of loans granted to households up 4 %. Taking into account Russia’s current inflation of around 16 %, the volume of corporate borrowing has practically not increased at all in real terms and household borrowing is down substantially.
About half of corporate loans exceed three years, and about a third of corporate loans are denominated in foreign currency. The stock of non-performing corporate loans increased by a third in the first four months of this year, but the rate of increase has been lower than during the 2008-2009 financial crisis. Non-performing loans represented 6 % of the corporate loan stock at the end of April. The share of non-performing loans to households was 7 %.