New leu and euro loans that consumers took out to buy homes dropped by about 14% to RON1.3 billion in January-February 2017, while new consumer loans stood at about RON2.3 billion, down 2% on the year-ago period. More than 90% of the new consumer and mortgage loans are leu loans, as there has hardly been any loan in foreign currency in the past two or three years.
While leu loans have always dominated consumer lending, the switch to leu from foreign currency loans used to buy a home started in the last few years, at first because of restrictions put in place by the central bank and then because of the leu interest rate cut and aggressive promotion of domestic currency loans by banks, once their lines of credit in foreign currency shrank.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)