Romanians fall further behind with bank payments, arrears reach EUR 4 billion

Romanians have fallen behind with payments on their loans, the arrears having reached EUR 4 billion in April, a growth of 3.1 percent on the month, according to data from the Romanian Central Bank (BNR). The population and firms' arrears made up for 7.02 percent of the bank debt at the end of March, and 7.20 percent at the end of April, an increase from a weight of 6.33 of the total loans at the end of 2010. Private lending rose by 0.3 percent month-on-month in April 2011 in Romania, to EUR 50.2 billion, according to BNR. Loans to population went down by 7.2 percent year-on-year, while companies’ loans went up by 6.6 percent year-on-year, on the Romanian currency segment. editor@romania-insider.com