TIRANA, Feb.4 /ATA/- Despite the Albania’s economic shock due to the pandemic, non-performing loans did not increase in 2020.
The Governor of the Bank of Albania, Gent Sejko stated at the today’s conference that, in 2020 the non-performing loans increased at the level of 8.1%.
“Non-performing loans represent a percentage that is expressed in relation to total loans and loans increased to 7.7%. Thus, in general, the financial sector, despite the crisis had positive results, good indicators of capitalization, profitability and lending,” Sejko said.
Two-quarter deferral of loan installment payments, regulatory changes for loan restructuring for 6 months to give banks proactive opportunities to restructure loans. This regulatory change was recently postponed for a quarter, until the end of the first quarter of 2021, precisely to help banks and businesses cope with the pandemic situation, to facilitate businesses to do restructuring, to extend deadlines in all possible forms by the banks for those customers who are affected.
In his remarks, Sejko did not provide figures on the level of growth of non-performing loans, but stressed that any forecast, not only for non-performing loans but also for economic growth, credit growth and all other macro indicators depends on the pandemic situation, on how long the pandemic will last, how much the austerity measures will be and how the economy will then react in view of the pandemic prolongation. //a.i/
