Page 33 - bne IntelliNews Georgia country report November 2017

Weekly Lists
November 11, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 33
bne:Credit
EBRD to lend $100mn to help Uzbek MSMEs, importers and exporters
Sberbank drops its lowest mortgage rate by 0.3% to 8.6%-9.7% per annum
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) will provide a loan of up to $100mn to Uzbekistan’s largest finan- cial institution, the National Bank for Foreign Economic Activity of Uzbekistan (NBU), to boost the country’s micro, small and medi- um-sized businesses (MSMEs) as well as domestic importers and exporters, the EBRD said in a statement on November 8.
The financing package will consist of a $70mn credit line to sup- port MSMEs and another $30mn under the EBRD’s Trade Facilita- tion Programme (TFP). Through the TFP programme, the EBRD provides “guarantees to international confirming banks, taking the political and commercial payment risk of international trade trans- actions undertaken by banks in these countries”. The programme supported finance transactions worth €1.45bn in 2016 alone.
Sberbank has dropped its lowest mortgage rate by 0.3% to 8.6%- 9.7% per annum as falling Central Bank of Russia (CBR) rates make borrowing in Russia increasingly affordable.
This rate is well below the 12% rate above which the government was offering subsidies to encourage Russians to buy their homes and also to bolster the flagging banking sector last year. Mortgage lending has become one of the most profitable businesses for banks.
The CBR cut its overnight monetary policy rate to 8.25% last month in the latest of run of cuts and as inflation dropped to a new historic low of only 2.7% at the start of November – well below the 4% target rate for this year – the regulator may cut rates again at its November meeting.
Polish banks have forecast that loan demand will grow to a limited extent across the main segments of corporates, housing, and con- sumer loans in the final quarter of 2017, a survey carried out by the National Bank of Poland (NBP) showed on November 6.
Banks expect that demand in the corporate segment will mostly grow in the category of long-term loans for small- and mid-sized enterprises (SMEs). Banks also plan to tighten lending criteria for SMEs in October-December.
There will be no fundamental changes in lending criteria in the mortgage segment, the surveyed banks claim. Demand for mort- gages is expected to be mediocre in the fourth quarter, with only individual banks expecting growth.
Polish banks forecast limited credit demand growth in final quarter