For the first time in Romania’s economic history, the volume of household loans exceeded the volume of corporate loans.

Banks granted loans of EUR 2.7 billion to individuals in the first five months of the year, up 47% year-on-year, whereas the volume of corporate credits reached EUR 2 billion during the same period, down 4% year-on-year, reports local Ziarul Financiar.

Confronted with the insolvencies of several companies, banks have come to prefer individuals, who are less risky.

The corporate lending has frozen in the past years despite historically low interest rates. The average interest rate for loans in Romanian currency amounted to 4% at the end of May, down 0.6 percentage points year-on-year, whereas the average interest for retail loans dropped by 0.4pp to 6.6% per year.

In the second half of 2015, the household loans exceeded by EUR 3.1 billion the value of loans granted during the same period in 2007. On the other side, the new corporate loans dropped by half compared to 2007.

editor@romania-insider.com