Household loans taken out in Croatia this year increased by HRK 7.2 billion from last year, with housing loans accounting for most of the lending growth, the Vecernji List daily wrote on Monday.

According to the Croatian Central Bank data cited by the newspaper, at the end of September 2022 household loans increased by HRK 7.2 billion or 5.1% compared with September 2021 and by HRK 300 million or 0.2% compared with August 2022, reaching HRK 148.3 billion.

Kuna-denominated loans amounted to HRK 74.1 billion and their share in total loans was 50%.

Analysts at Raiffeisen Bank (RBA) said that housing loans were the biggest generator of the total lending, with annual growth of 9.7% (+HRK 6.5bn) and monthly growth of 0.8% (+HRK 600m).

At the end of September 2022, housing loans reached HRK 73.3 billion, increasing by HRK 5.5 billion or 8.1% from the end of 2021 and accounting for 49.4% of total household loans.

On the other hand, general-purpose cash loans amounted to HRK 54.2 billion, which was 36.6% of total household loans. They rose by HRK 1 billion or 1.9% year on year and by HRK 300 million or 0.5% month on month.

Credit card loans reached HRK 3 billion, decreasing by 8.5% from September 2021 and increasing by 9.7% from August 2022. Overdrafts totalled HRK 6.5 billion, increasing by 2.4% on the year.

(€1 = HRK 7.54)