November 14 (SeeNews) - Total loans in Croatia fell 1.9% on the year and rose 0.8% on the month to 255.7 billion kuna ($39.7 billion/33.9 billion euro) at the end of September, the local unit of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) said on Tuesday.
The annual decline in total nominal loans has been continuing since August 2015, Raiffeisenbank Austria Zagreb (RBA) said in a market report.
The reduction is a result of the sale of non-performing placements and a decline in foreign currency loans, the bank explained.
Loans in local currency continued to grow in September, whereas loans denominated in foreign currency followed a deleveraging trend. Kuna loans climbed 5.6% on the year, while foreign currency loans, which represent 62% of all loans, decreased 5.9%.
Loans to households edged up 0.4% year-on-year to 118 billion kuna in September, with housing loans accounting for 43.8% of the total.
Slightly more than a third of total loans is made up of claims to non-financial companies, which amounted to 85.6 billion kuna at the end of September, up 0.3% year-on-year.
Loans to the central government decreased 8.5%.
(1 euro=7.55250 kuna)