Since February 2022, Croatian banks have seen a rise in loans to businesses, with the rate of increase of corporate lending in Croatia higher than in lending to households, state agency Hina said on Monday, citing a report by the local association of banks HUB.

“The growth rate in net loans for the corporate sector in May 2022 was double-digit from May 2021,” Hina said, without clarifying. According to the latest data for July, Croatia, Ireland, and Romania are the three EU countries with the fastest growth in corporate lending.

In July, working capital loans rose 21.5 percent year-on-year, and loans taken for investments increased by 12.0 percent. Broken down by company size, loans to large companies increased by 20.4 percent, to micro companies by 15.3 percent, while borrowing by medium-sized businesses accelerated by 8.8 percent, and to small companies by 7.4 percent.

Retail banking is also seeing dynamic activity,  with net household borrowing increasing by 5.2 percent in July. These include housing loans which increased 9.4 percent, and cash loans which increased by 2.8 percent.

Household deposits are also rising at a faster rate than household lending, which indicates reduced levels of debt held by households.