OREANDA-NEWS. May 03, 2012. The corporate and household loan and leasing stock of 14.4 billion euros did not change in March compared to February. Though the corporate loan and leasing stock increased slightly, the shrinkage in the balance of household housing and consumption loans continued. Like in previous months, the volume of household car leases expanded, reported the press-centre of Eesti Pank. 

The volume of new corporate loans increased, being 19% larger than at the same time a year ago. New loans grew the most in real estate, construction and trade within the year. The loan turnover declined in only the infrastructure sector.

Interest rates on household and corporate loans declined in March, averaging to 3.1% and 3.4%, respectively. This was partly also due to the 0.2 pp month-on-month decline in the 6-month EURIBOR.

Loan quality did not change in the first months of the year. The share of loans overdue by more than 60 days in the portfolio remained at the year-end’s 4.8% level.

Different from previous months, corporate and household deposits with banks declined in March. As a result, annual deposit growth rate slowed as well. In February, year-on-year deposit growth was 8.6%, whereas in March the indicator was 7.3%.

Banks’ first-quarter net profit was 104 million euros, and the past four quarters’ total profit made up 1.9% of banks’ assets. The profitability of banks remained at the long-term average level in past quarters. Net profit grew by 7 million, quarter-on-quarter, mostly due to the recovery of earlier write-downs.