Banking sector, comparison with the region – Central Bank of Austria: Albania among the first in the region for private sector lending

Albania and Kosovo are the third and second countries in the region, after Serbia with the largest annual increase in private sector lending, says the Central Bank of Austria in the latest report on European integration in the second quarter of the year. Thus, for Albania, the data show an annual increase in lending to the non-banking private sector, of 5.9% during the last quarter of last year.

This rate is higher only in Kosovo, with 7.1% and in Serbia with 10.9%. Northern Macedonia, Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina meanwhile report lower growth rates. Albania and Kosovo are also among the countries that do not report negative rates of this indicator in any quarter since the outbreak of the pandemic. Lending to the private sector by lending institutions is seen as very important for a country’s economy, especially in times of crisis, as it contributes to the mitigation of the crisis and the recovery process.

Another data, that of non-performing loans puts Albania at the top of the region in terms of improving this indicator since 2018. For Albania, the improvement is fixed at 3 percentage points, taking into account the last period reported by the Bank Central Austria, which is the last quarter of last year, which speaks of a rate close to 8.2%. Currently this rate in our country has dropped close to 7.9%. The improvement of this indicator in the span of two years thus places Albania first in the region. It is followed by Bosnia and Herzegovina with 2.7 percentage points improvement, and Northern Macedonia with 1.6 percentage points. Kosovo is last with 0 points difference, but staying first in the region beyond this rate in total, at only 2.7%.

SCAN

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