The expansion of the resource base and a strong growth in profitability indicate the readiness of the banking system of Ukraine for increasing lending to the economy, Head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Ihor Sorkin has said.
“After three years of loss-making activities, in the past year the banks saw profits – nearly Hr 5 billion. And over the four months of the current year profits amounted to Hr 4.1 billion. The banking sector has achieved profit and is ready to ramp up lending to the economy. Bankers can be proud of this,” he said.
According to him, the growth of credit support to the economy is being observed: in January-April the banks increased lending to legal entities by Hr 12.5 billion, which corresponds to almost half of the growth in loans over the past year.
In addition, Sorkin noted the dynamic growth of the banks’ resource base at the expense of public deposits on the background of price stability.
“The predominant growth of funds in the hryvnia marks the substantial improvement of market expectations. And April’s increase in public deposits in the national currency was the largest in recent years, amounting to almost Hr 9 billion,” said the banker.
The consequence of the growth of the resource base, according to the central bank, was a decline in interest rates: the average weighted rate in the national currency decreased to 15% in April from 18% at the beginning of this year.
In connection with this Sorkin said that the NBU is actively supporting the banks – the average rate on refinancing operations in April amounted to 7.9% per annum.
The NBU also said that the year of 2013 would be very important for the development of the banking system: threats posed by the unstable global economic recovery require bankers make further efforts to maintain stable development.
“We went to a lot of trouble to resolve the problem of the dollarization of the banks’ loan portfolio. And dedollarization is, above all, the strengthening of the banking system resilience to external shocks,” the NBU head said.
The share of individuals’ loans in foreign currency in the total amount of loans, according to the NBU, last year decreased to 43%. Four years ago the figure was 73%.
