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Weekly Lists
June 8, 2018 www.intellinews.com I Page 28
bne:Credit
EBRD optimistic on Central Asia but has no plans to restart lending in Russia
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development’s (EBRD’s) president Suma Chakrabarti said in an interview with Reuters that the development bank has no plans to restart lending in Russia but has some optimism where its projects in Central Asia are concerned.
The development bank froze loans to Russia in 2014 due to Mos- cow’s involvement in the Ukrainian conflict and its position has not changed, Chakrabarti noted.
The EBRD’s positive attitude towards Russia’s former Central Asian vassal states is partly thanks to Uzbekistan’s ongoing market re- forms. Moreover, the EBRD plans to put a managing director for the Central Asian region in Kazakhstan next year as a recognition of its commitment to the ex-Soviet state, which stands as one of the bank’s top five markets.
Ukraine is going to enter the Eurobond markets in 2018 to refinance state debt maturing in 2019-2020, the nation's recently sacked Finance Minister Oleksandr Danylyuk said in an interview with online outlet Ekomomichna Pravda published days before the parliament voted to dismiss him.
In September 2018, Ukraine placed $3bn in 15-year Eurobonds at 7.375% per annum, after Kyiv mandated JP Morgan, BNP Paribas and Goldman Sachs as bookrunners for its new Eurobonds issue. The deal has become a first market placement for the country since the victory of the popular uprising in February 2014.
According to a presentation of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU). after the successful return of the government to the Eurobond market in 2017, in 2018-2020 it is expected to continue offering, specifically, $2.5bn in 2018, $1.5bn in 2019 and $2.5bn in 2020.
The gross non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of Albanian commercial banks declined to 13.46% of the total loan portfolio in April, compared to 16.59% in the same month last year, according to central bank data released on June 5.
In monthly terms, the NPL ratio was up by only 0.03 pp in April, after falling by 0.22% m/m in March.
The NPL rate is now over 10 pp lower compared to its peak in 2014, despite an uptick in 2016 that saw the rate rebound as high as 21.44% in August that year before again falling.
Ukraine seeks to place new Eurobonds in 2018
Albania's bad loan ratio falls 3.13 pp y/y in April