December 19 (SeeNews) - Serbia's banking sector posted a combined pre-tax profit of 3.2 billion dinars ($27 million/25.9 million euro) in the first nine months of 2016, up 23.1% on the year, chiefly due to narrowing of net loan loss, the country's central bank said.
The industry's total operating costs edged up 0.2% year-on-year, reaching 82 billion dinars on the year, while combined net loan loss shrank to 15.6 billion dinars from 28.6 billion dinars, NBS said in a quarterly banking sector report published on Friday.
The Serbian banking sector's interest income fell 4.6% on the year to 93.2 billion dinars in January-September due to a decline in interest income from loans in dinars, which fell to 84.4 billion dinars from 96.8 billion dinars.
A total of 22 banks posted a combined pre-tax profit of 37.3 billion dinars in the first nine months of 2016, while eight lenders reported a combined pre-tax loss of 4.5 billion dinars.
At the end of September, the aggregate loan portfolio of the 30 banks active in Serbia amounted to 1,977 billion dinars, up by 2.2% year-on-year, while the total value of non-performing loans (NPLs) fell by 7.8 billion dinars to 396.5 billion dinars.
(1 euro = 123.596 dinars)