November 16 (SeeNews) - The total amount of claims of Bulgarian leasing companies under financial and operational leases increased by an annual 14.1% to 5.18 billion levs ($2.75 billion/2.6 billion euro) as at the end of September 2022, the central bank said on Wednesday.
Compared to the end of June, claims were also higher, by 6.8% at the end of September, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a quarterly report.
At 3.3%, their share of the projected annual gross domestic product (GDP) remained unchanged year-on-year.
Financial lease claims totalled 4.83 billion levs at end-September, up by an annual 11.9% and 4.6% higher quarter-on-quarter.
Claims under agreements for financial leases of cars amounted to some 2.1 billion levs at the end of September, up 16.1% year-on-year. These claims made up the largest share of total financial lease claims, of 42.8%, up 1.5 percentage points on the year.
Operational lease claims jumped by an annual 55.9% to 345.4 million levs at the end of September, and were 49.1% higher compared to the value at the end of the second quarter.
The assets of the companies operating in Bulgaria's leasing sector totalled 6.23 billion levs at the end of September, up from 5.44 billion levs a year earlier.
There were altogether 47 active leasing companies at the end of September, or three more compared to a year earlier.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)