NBU says lending growth in foreign currency depends on export routes reopening

MOSCOW. July 15 (Interfax) - Higher lending to Ukrainian businesses in foreign currency is constrained by the disruption of export routes due to the crisis, First Deputy Governor of the National Bank of Ukraine Ekaterina Rozhkova said.

"Export routes and export logistics have to stabilize and recover for this [FX lending to grow], because no one, neither banks nor clients, wants to take on currency risks," Ukrainian media quoted her as saying at a presentation of the monthly economic review, organized by the Center for Economic Strategy (CES).

Rozhkova said FX lending would recover in the future.

The NBU said preliminary data that corporate lending in foreign currency decreased 1.4% to $5.9 billion in June. The drop has been 6.7% in a year and more than 25% in two years. In general, after the start of the crisis, the dollar denominated corporate loan portfolio has decreased by 41.2% since the start of the crisis.