The volume of new credits, received by trade enterprises over a recent year (August 2012 - July 2013) made up UAH 624.6 billion, which formed almost half of total volume of new credits of non-financial corporations over the designated period.

The Independent Association of Ukrainian Banks (IAUB) informs about this with reference to the NBU data.

"Banks willingly credit the trade sphere, since the quality of credit servicing is acceptable (as of August 1, 2013, a past-due debt did not exceed 10%). Thanks to a short financial cycle, credit capacity of a considerable part of trade companies is relatively stable now," a statement reads.

According to a survey, held by the State Statistics Service, 71% of heads of retail enterprises consider the financial state of their companies satisfactory, and 11% - good. At the same time, 33% of respondents hope for positive changes in the financial state of their enterprises.

According to the NBU, growth of trade companies' credit portfolios this year outstrips growth of the corporate portfolio total volume (+4.3% against +3.8% since the year start). As of the beginning of August 2013, debts of trade enterprises on bank credits made up UAH 229.6 billion (36.5% of total volume of the banks' corporate credit portfolio).

According to the IAUB, cooperation of banks and trade enterprises has good perspectives for development. "Short-term crediting provides a rather high yield. And under condition of taking into consideration key risks of trade enterprises' activities and observation of considerate restrictions on debt load volumes, the banks could further support the credit portfolio quality of trade enterprises at an acceptable level," the association notes.

Ukrinform