December 17 (SeeNews) - The loan portfolio of commercial banks in the U.N.-run Serbian province of Kosovo grew to 852.045 million euro ($1.23 billion) at the end of October, up by 37.3% from a year earlier, the Central Banking Authority of Kosovo (CBAK) said on Monday.
Deposits in Kosovo banks totalled 1.1 billion euro at the end of October, up by 24.03% from a year earlier, CBAK said in its October report.
Details follow (in millions of euro):
|
|
10-mo'07 |
10-mo'06 |
9-mo'07 |
| total loans |
852.045 |
620.703 |
825.045 |
| -to households |
192.090 |
144.827 |
186.493 |
| -non financial corporations |
659.952 |
475.876 |
638.552 |
| total deposits |
1,102.740 |
888.998 |
1,062.520 |
| -of households |
660.06 |
500.993 |
629.67 |
| -of non financial corporations |
368.191 |
320.987 |
361.79 |
| total income |
120.196 |
93.741 |
106.463 |
| -interest income |
94.86 |
72.558 |
83.89 |
| net profit |
27.72 |
17.14 |
24.68 |
| total assets |
1,385.411 |
1,120.133 |
1,336.773 |
Eight commercial banks operate in Kosovo with Raiffeisen Bank Kosovo and ProCredit holding the biggest market shares by assets. Legally still part of Serbia, Kosovo has been under U.N. administration since 1999, when NATO bombs drove out Serb forces amid inter-ethnic fighting. Serbs oppose any form of independence for the province, while Kosovo's 90 percent ethnic Albanian majority insists on it.
The Kosovo question will come now for a second time before the U.N. Security Council, with the first session scheduled for Wednesday. But the Council remains divided on the issue, with Russia insisting that an independent Kosovo will mean chaos for the Balkans.
($=0.6948 euro)