February 1 (SeeNews) - The combined net profit of Kosovo's banks dropped 20.3% to 75.5 million euro ($81 million) last year, according to central bank data.
The banking sector's outstanding loan portfolio expanded 10.4% to 2.23 billion euro in 2016, figures published on Kosovo central bank's website show.
Corporate loans increased 8.3% to 1.43 billion euro, while loans to households grew 14.7% to 796.6 million euro.
Bad loans represented 4.9% of total loans at end-December 2016, down from 6.2% a year earlier.
Deposits in Kosovo's banks increased by 7.2% to 2.9 billion euro last year. Deposits of households grew 8% to 2.12 billion euro, whereas corporate deposits increased 14.5% to 668.2 million euro.
The banking system's total assets grew 7.4% year-on-year, reaching 3.64 billion euro as of end-December.
Return on assets (ROA), a key profitability indicator of the sector, fell to 2.2% at the end of December 2016, from 2.9% a year earlier. Return on equity (ROE), another profitability indicator, also worsened, declining to 18.5% from 26.4% in December 2015.
The figures comprise the financial results of ten Kosovo banks. The largest in terms of assets among them are Banka Kombetare Tregtare, Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo and ProCredit Bank.
In the January-November period, the combined net profit of Kosovo's banks decreased 12.8% on the year to 70.9 million euro.
($=0.9318 euro)