More favourable loans only when based on CNB measures

Published: 13/6/2012

As previously announced, the Governor of the Croatian National Bank issued a decision under which the calculation of minimum required foreign currency claims will also include 50% of the amount of bank loans granted to economic entities in the context of the Loan Programme for the Development of the Economy. This, alongside the already issued decision on the reduction in the reserve requirement rate from 15% to 13.5%, and the exclusion of the funds received from multilateral development banks from the calculation base, completes the package of monetary policy measures aimed at promoting lending to the economy. The combined effect of these decisions for the banks lies in approximately HRK 6.4bn in freed kuna and foreign exchange liquidity.

At the same time, the commercial banks concluded a syndicated loan agreement with the Croatian Bank for Reconstruction and Development worth HRK 3.4bn, under which the banks and HBOR will, in accordance with the adopted Programme for the Development of the Economy, in a joint effort at 50:50 ratio, grant loans to the economy that will total HRK 6.8bn, an amount much below the originally envisaged HRK 12bn.

Such a ratio between the amount of liquidity freed for this purpose by the CNB and the envisaged amount of loans to end users points to a very low level of banks' readiness to use their high liquidity from other sources to increase the supply of loans to the economy at lower interest rates. It is worth noting that central bank measures reduced significantly the total expenses of banks on their sources of financing.