Cbank chairwoman says Russian economy crediting rises 8.5% in June

MOSCOW, Jul 17 (PRIME) -- Lending to the Russian economy rose 8.5% on the year in June, Ñentral Bank Chairwoman Elvira Nabiullina told President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday.

“I would like to tell you about the results of the banking system development for these six months. I think it is very important that we have approached a new stage by doing much work to recover the banking system, I mean, banks must have capital, liquidity to raise lending,” Nabiullina said.

“And lending is growing as a whole, albeit at varying paces in various sectors, but data for half a year, year-on-year, indicates an 8.5% growth of lending to the economy in June.”

She said that retail lending increased 18.9% on the year, mortgages 22.4% on the year.

The central bank is monitoring the quality of mortgage lending in order to prevent formation of bubbles. The mortgage rate has a potential to continue decreasing from the current average of 9.56%, the official said.

Nabiullina also said that the average credit rate for small and medium business has fallen below 10%, a psychologically important threshold for this type of lending.

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