February 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian leasing companies' claims under financial and operational leases increased by an annual 6.3% to 4.29 billion levs ($2.37 billion/2.19 billion euro) at the end last year, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said.
Compared to the end of September, claims were 0.5% higher at the end of 2019, BNB said in a statement on Monday.
Financial lease claims totalled 4.08 billion levs at the end of 2019, up by an annual 6.9% and 0.4% higher compared to the end of the third quarter.
Operational lease claims fell by an annual 3.4% to 218 million levs at the end of last year, but were 2.1% higher compared to the end of September.
The assets of the companies operating in Bulgaria's leasing sector totalled 5.15 billion levs at the end of 2019, up from 4.82 billion levs a year earlier.
There were a total of 48 active leasing companies at the end of last year, one less compared to a year earlier.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)