site.btaCentral Bank Publishes 2020 Annual Report

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


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