The banking system of Ukraine grants practically no loans, and the increase in the first half of the year was only 8.2%, Association of Ukrainian Banks President Oleksandr Suhoniako told a press conference.

"Crediting has been stagnating since last November. Banks provide short-term loans, and the volume of long-term crediting declines. 33.4% of all loans are directed to real estate and trade (305 billion UAH)," Suhoniako said.

At the same time, he said, the decline in the share of overdue loans is a positive trend. Thus, last year banks sold or wrote off non-performing loans amounting to 26.8 billion UAH, and in the 1st half of this year 18.6 billion UAH. The proportion of overdue loans has significantly reduced over the past two months. This suggests that banks clean their assets from them.

Bank assets rose up slightly, however, mainly due to interbank, government securities, accrued but unpaid interest.

The population remains the main source of resources due to an increase in interest rates on deposits.

The growth rate of deposits accounted for 10%, with an increase of 32 billion UAH. Demand deposits increased by 15% and time deposits by 9%.

In the first half of the year, banks made a profit of 1.558 billion UAH; losses last year amounted to 1.062 billion UAH.

Ukrinform