January 27 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian banks' gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio increased to 7.4% at the end of September from 7.2% at the end of June, the Bulgarian National Bank said.
Gross NPLs amounted to 6.9 billion levs ($3.9 billion/3.5 billion euro) at the end of September and were 5.8% higher compared to the end of June, the BNB said in a quarterly Banks in Bulgaria report.
Since the end of June gross loans and advances rose by 2.5 billion levs to 93.0 billion levs at the end of September.
The total accumulated impairment in the banking system was 4.0 billion levs at the end of September.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)