February 15 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian leasing companies' claims under financial and operational leases totalled 4.575 billion levs ($2.65 billion/2.34 billion euro) at the end of 2021, up 6.2% on an annual comparison basis, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said on Tuesday.
Compared to the end of September, claims were 0.8% higher at the end of last year, the BNB said in a statement.
Financial lease claims totalled 4.351 billion levs at the end of 2021, up 6.4% year-on-year and 0.8% higher compared to the third quarter of the year.
Operational lease claims grew by 1.6% on the year to 224.4 million levs at the end of last year, and added 1.3% compared to the end of the third quarter.
The assets of the companies operating in Bulgaria's leasing sector totalled 5.46 billion levs at the end of 2021, up from 5.25 billion levs a year earlier.
There were 46 active leasing companies in Bulgaria at the end of 2021, the same number as at the end of the previous year.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)