29 Apr 2010 14:04

Bank loans to individuals rise for first time since Jan 2009

MOSCOW. April 29 (Interfax) - The total volume of loans to individuals from Russian banks edged up 0.3% to 3.536 trillion rubles in March 2010, the first increase since January 2009, when growth equaled 0.5%, the Central Bank of Russia said in materials.

In the intervening 13 months, the loan volume declined 12.7% to 3.526 trillion rubles, down from 4.037 trillion rubles as of February 1, 2009.

The volume of overdue loans increased 1.4% to 261.018 billion rubles in March. The overdue total increased 7.5% in the first quarter, from 243.0 billion rubles at the beginning of the year.

The share of overdue loans among all retail loans rose to 7.4% in March from 7.3% at the beginning of the month and 6.8% as of January 1, 2010.