TIRANA, March 6 (Xinhua) -- Consumer loans continue to be one of the healthiest segments of lending in the Albanian banking sector, a study published by the Bank of Albania showed Monday.
According to the central bank, consumer loans issued by banks in Albania during 2016 saw an increase of 12 percent year-on-year.
The consumer loan portfolio of the banking system amounted to around 39 billion leks (301.7 million U.S. dollars), without including overdrafts, bank data showed.
Experts from the central bank said that the growth in consumer loans was mainly supported by the significant reduction of interest rates and the focus that banks continued to have on lending to households.
The value of consumer loans are relatively low and, therefore, banks' exposure to individual customers is relatively small. This enables a high diversification and distribution of credit risk, experts said.
The growth in loans also reflects increasing private consumption in economy, they added.
A single purchase
