Croats Borrowing Less

Croats are borrowing less from the banks, whilst annual deposits are on the up, according to data from the Croatian National Bank.

The sharpest fall when it came to lending came with loans for purchasing new cars, which fell 31.4% on the yearly level. The drop in borrowing has in turn effected car sales, which more down 44%. At the end of May credit for car purchases totalled 2.6 billion kuna (340 million euros), which is 1.3 billion kuna (170 million euros) less that the same period in 2012 and 2.9 billion (380 million euros) less than in 2011.

Credits for mortgages also fell this year, dropping by around 1% on the same period last year. At the end of May mortgage loans totalled more than 61 billion kuna (8 billion euros). Personal consumer credit rose however 0.4% on last year. In total Croats owned the banks 128.4 billion kuna (18 billion euros) at the end of May, with 48% of it made up of mortgage debt. Deposits, which are an important segment of financial liquidity, grew at an annual rate of 5%.