BRATISLAVA, April 20, (WEBNOVINY) — After last year’s revival on the mortgage market, consumer finance is experiencing a boom now. As the chief analyst at VUB Zdenko Stefanides said, unlike housing loans where growth slowed down in the second half of 2011, demand for consumer loans increased at the end of last year. „According to surveys carried out by the National Bank of Slovakia, Slovak banks expect strong growth in consumer lending to continue in the first half of 2012, which was confirmed by data from the first two months of the year during which the volume of consumer loans increased over the same period last year by nearly 16 percent, “ said Stefanides.
As the National Bank stated in its analysis of the financial sector in 2011, while there was a revival in consumer lending last year, in the second half of the year the volume of loans in absolute terms reached the level of 2008. „For comparison, retail consumer loans in the second half of 2011 totaled 180 million euros, while in the same period of 2010 it was only 85 million euros,“ reported the central bank. However, according to the NBS, this significant growth of consumer loans was concentrated only in selected banks. The easing of standards for consumer loans was more significant than in the case of housing loans, however, it was concentrated in only certain banks.
SITA
