Romanians have started to fail behind with more bank payments since the beginning of the year, reaching arrears of around EUR 880 million in March this year, which is 27 percent more than the end of last year, according to the Romanian Central Bank (BNR). The calculation took into account debt payments which are more than 30 days delayed. The amount was also 2.6 times higher than in the same period of last year.

Three quarters of the arrears have a payment delay higher than 90 days, which is the official timing when banks active in Romania are creating a provision for the loan and mark it as a loss.

However, the number of people owing the bank money but unable to pay one time went down to 677,400 people, from 686,000 people in February.