He said the rebound of the economy will continue but will remain as slow as before, considering Romania is relatively dependent on the economy of the Western Europe and the uncertainty in the euro zone.
BRD’s boss says that, basically, he has optimistic expectations, particularly when taking into account the opportunities that the local market provides on medium and long term, at least in such sectors as energy, infrastructure and agriculture, but would rather stick to a cautious scenario for next year, after having had his 2011 expectations proven wrong to a certain extent.
Guy Poupet explains that 2011 was a difficult year precisely because he had hoped the economy would improve more.
He thinks there is no way major banks would reduce lending business, but volumes will depend on demand.
“We are ready to finance the energy sector, the farmers or infrastructure projects,” Poupet said.
BRD’s chairman believes that the banking system has the capability to adjust to the new constraints and next year’s priorities will be stimulating lending in lei and encouraging savings. He says his bank does not have any problem with the loan/deposit ratio, it has a lot of leu loans and finds it easy to encourage leu lending.
“If the inflation stays low, I think leu loan interests might go down somewhat, but there is a lot of uncertainty and I cannot say for sure what will happen in three months.”
Leu cannot replace the euro as loan currency overnight, he added. It should be known, however, that the available leu resources are higher and the risk is lower.
Non-performing loans remain a source of problems for BRD that has to do with the slow recovery pace of the economy and of the fatigue companies are experiencing after three years of recession, the official said. Large corporate companies are not giving the bank any trouble, but the small and medium-sized businesses continue to suffer because the economy is slow to recover, Poupet added.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)