November 18 (SeeNews) - Bulgarian leasing companies' claims under financial and operational leases have increased by an annual 8.2% to 4.27 billion levs ($2.41 billion/2.18 billion euro) at the end of September, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said.
Compared to the end of June, claims were 1.3% higher at the end of September, BNB said in a statement on Friday.
Financial lease claims totalled 4.06 billion levs at the end of September, up by an annual 8.9% and 1.9% higher compared to the end of the second quarter.
Operational lease claims fell by an annual 3.6% to 212.5 million levs at the end of September, and were 8.5% lower compared to the end of the previous quarter.
The assets of the companies operating in Bulgaria's leasing sector totalled 5.16 billion levs at the end of September, up from 4.74 billion levs a year earlier.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)