Bulgaria’s deposit rates round off 2009 with Y/Y decline

Finance and Taxes

altAfter a frenzied two-year expansion, the interest rates on local-currency term deposits in Bulgaria finished the year lower to 7.50% on average, showed central bank data.

This compares with an average effective annual rate of 8.16% at the start of the year.

On the euro front, the average dipped to 6.16% in December from 6.31% in January.

Rates on the different types of loans ended the year mixed, with lev-denominated housing loans going 0.58 percentage points costlier to 9.72% and euro rates tiptoeing down to 8.72%.

Local-currency consumer loans staged a decrease to 13.54%, while the rates on business loans of up to BGN 1 million in both currencies inched up to 10.93% abd 9.34%.

Postbank executive director Assen Yagodin said rate fluctuations in local-currency home mortgage are not indicative of a steady trend as the euro forms the lion’s share of the portfolio.

But even if deposit rates are gliding down, Bulgarian households keep stashing the cash, Raiffeisenbank Bulgaria said in a report based on figures by the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) and its own loan portfolio.

Between January and November 2009, attracted resources in the banking sector from individuals and households have surged by 7% to upwards of BGN 24 billion.

In its latest report on households in Central and Eastern Europe focused on Bulgaria, UniCredit Group predicted deposits will outpace loans this year and the next.

Text source: dnevnik.bg
Image: google.com

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