April 30 (BTA) – The Governing Council of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) on Thursday adopted and submitted to the National Assembly the central bank report for 2020, the BNB press office said. In 2020, real GDP declined by 4.2 per cent. The annual growth of loans for non-financial enterprises and households slowed down to 4.5 per cent at the end 2020 compared with 7.4 per cent in December 2019. Uncertainty with regard to the future development of the macroeconomic environment and the weak investment activity in 2020 suppressed demand for lending from the private sector. Meanwhile in the wake of restrictions introduced to curb the spread of the coronavirus, banks tightened their lending standards and conditions, the report says. At the end of 2020 the market value of the gross foreign exchange reserves totalled 30,848.2 million leva, up by 6,012.6 million euro from the end of 2019, or an annual growth of 24.2 per cent. Bulgaria’s banking system met the economic shock of the pandemic with high capital and liquidity position, which ensured the continuity and reliability of the activities of the banks in connection with financial intermediation, the central bank says. The sustainability and flexibility of the banking sector against the background of an aggravated macroeconomic environment were supported by a recent policy of building buffers in the system as well as measures put in place on March 12 2020 by the central bank’s Governing Council aimed at further strengthening the banks’capital and liquidity. By December 31 2020 the register of bank accounts and safe deposit boxes contained entries about 15.3 million active bank accounts, down from 15.6 million bank accounts a year earlier and about 31,400 safe deposit boxes lease agreements, down from 32,400 by December 2019. including records about 3 million new bank accounts and 3.2 million closed bank accounts. RY/PP //
(DF) Central Bank Publishes 2020 Annual Report
