March 23 (SeeNews) - Loans to Bulgaria's non-government sector went up by 12.4% on the year to some 81.2 billion levs ($45.2 billion/41.5 billion euro) in February, following an annual rise of 13% in January, the central bank said on Thursday.
The value of non-government loans at the end of February was equivalent to 46% of Bulgaria's gross domestic product (GDP) forecast for 2023, the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) said in a monthly monetary statistics report.
Loans to non-financial corporations increased by 8.7% annually to 41.49 billion levs last month after registering a year-on-year rise of 9.9% in January.
In parallel, loans granted to financial corporations advanced by 27.5% to 6.09 billion levs, with growth rate slightly accelerating from 27% in January.
Household loans reached 33.66 billion levs at the end of February, rising at a stable rate of 14.8%. The value of household loans was equivalent to 19% of the GDP planned for 2023, the BNB said.
Out of the total household loans, those for house purchases went up by 18.1% year-on-year to 16.8 billion levs, while consumer loans climbed by 12.3% to 15.2 billion levs.
(1 euro = 1.95583 levs)