May 18 (SeeNews) - The ratio of non-performing loans (NPLs) in Serbia's banking sector dropped to 9.2% at the end of March from 11.1% in November 2017, the country's central bank governor, Jorgovanka Tabakovic, has said
"Since the start of the year, lending growth has accelerated, to 7.5% year-on-year in March, sustained by the effects of past monetary policy easing, growing economic activity and labour market recovery. Coupled with the activities on the resolution of NPLs, this led to the continued reduction of the NPL ratio to 9.2% in March," Tabakovic said on Thursday during the presentation of the central bank's May inflation report.
Serbia's current account deficit declined by 6.3% year-on-year in the first quarter, exports of goods and services grew in the double digits. In terms of structure, the financial account still recorded a high net inflow of foreign direct investment, which was higher by around 2% year-on-year and boosted by the net inflow of portfolio investment, Tabakovic explained.
"We estimate that the net inflow of foreign direct investment for the entire year will be around 2.6 billion euro ($3.1 billion)," she noted.
In the May inflation report, Serbia's central bank affirmed its forecast for the country's economic growth in 2018 and 2019 at 3.5% each, as estimated in November, backed by well-calibrated economic policy measures, Tabakovic said.
($ = 0.848509 euro)