At the end of September 2018, household lending in Croatia totalled 122.6 billion kuna (€16.5 billion), 3.9 percent up year-on-year, and increasing for the 13th month in a row, Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts said on Tuesday in their comments on central bank figures.

At the end of September 2018, household loans denominated in the local currency kuna totalled 62.9 billion kuna (€8.5 billion), or up 13.9 percent year-on-year. Kuna-denominated loans have been steadily increasing since early 2013.

Meanwhile, the value of household loans denominated in foreign currencies has been declining since 2012. At the end of September, they amounted to 59.6 billion kuna (€8 billion), down 4.8 percent year-on-year.

The share of kuna loans has gone up by about 4 percentage points in the past year to 51 percent of all loans, RBA said.

By type, housing loans accounted for the largest share of all loans, 43 percent, totalling 52.8 billion kuna (€7.1 billion) at the end of September 2018, or up 2.3 percent year-on-year.

Kuna-denominated housing loans reached almost 15 billion kuna (€2 billion) at the end of September 2018, up 20.2 percent on the year.

General purpose loans, which account for nearly 38 percent of all loans, totalled 46.8 billion kuna (€6.3 billion) in September, up 10 percent year-on-year.

“Although the year-on-year increase in total household lending point to the recovery of lending activities by the general population, mainly due to low interests on offer in the loan market, we believe this growth should be more moderate considering the overall debt levels, as well as structural weaknesses of the labour market,” RBA analysts said.

(€1 = 7.43 kuna)

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