May 15 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian leasing companies' claims under financial and operational leases have increased by an annual 13.2% to 4.12 billion levs ($2.36 billion/2.11 billion euro) at the end of March, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said on Wednesday.
Compared to the end of 2018, claims were 1.9% higher at the end of the first quarter of 2019, BNB said in a statement.
Financial lease claims totalled 3.88 billion levs at the end of March, up by an annual 12.9% and 1.9% higher compared to the end of 2018.
Operational lease claims increased by an annual 17.8% to 232.4 million levs at the end of March, and were 2.9% higher compared to the end of the previous quarter.
The assets of the companies operating in Bulgaria's leasing sector totalled 4.89 billion levs at the end of March, up from 4.36 billion levs a year earlier.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)