ARB: Banks have granted loans equivalent to 29 percent of Romania’s GDP since the beginning of the pandemic

The banks in Romania have granted new loans to the population and companies, between January 2020 and August 2023, in the amount of over 410 billion RON, which represents the equivalent of 29 percent of the GDP of Romania for the year 2022, according to data from the Romanian Association of Banks (ARB).

The volume of new loans, granted to the population and companies in 3 years and eight months since the start of the pandemic, exceeds by 8.25 percent the non-governmental credit balance recorded at the end of August 2023, of almost 379 billion RON. In the first eight months of the current year, new loans worth 89 billion RON were granted, more than in the whole of 2020.

The balance of non-government credit is calculated as the difference between total new loans to households and businesses and partial and total repayments, as well as credit sales. The speed of credit renewal is accelerated by boosting the financing of companies, an important share of them accessing short-term loans of less than a year.