The share of non-performing loans in Croatia continued to fall in the third quarter of 2018, reaching 10.2 percent by the end of September, the central bank said on Tuesday.

The proportion of bad loans decreased by 0.9 percent compared to Q2 2018, and by 2.2 percent on the year.

By the end of September, commercial banks had issued nearly 254 billion kuna (€34.3 billion) in loans, of which 26 billion kuna (€3.5 billion), or 10.2 percent of total loans granted, was classified as partly recoverable or completely irrecoverable.

The central bank figures show that the share of non-performing loans has been decreasing almost uninterruptedly since mid-2015, when their proportion peaked at 17.3 percent.

The only exception was recorded in the first quarters of 2017 and 2018.

The decline in bad loans was partly due to an increase in the sale of claims as part of activities relating to the resolution of irrecoverable claims.

According to the latest data, nearly 4.3 billion kuna (€581 million) worth of claims was sold in the first nine months of 2018, including over 3.6 billion kuna (€486 million) in claims for B and C category loans, usually issued to low credit quality borrowers.

(EUR 1 = 7.4 kuna)

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