Bulgarian banks recorded a combined profit of 214 million leva in the first four months of 2011, the latest figures of the Bulgarian National Bank (BNB) showed.

In April alone, the banks generated a profit of 57 million leva, down 1.7 per cent in annual terms. By comparison, local banks saw their net earnings slide 34 per cent in the same period of 2010.

In March and February 2011, their profit declined by 7.2 per cent and 7.7 per cent, respectively.

Provisions for overdue loans in the first four months of the year came in at 404.2 million leva, up by about 20 million leva compared with the same period of 2010.

Corporate loans edged up 0.8 per cent to 34.4 billion leva, which is the largest increase since the start of the year. The improvement was driven by the credit activity of small- and mid-size banks, BNB said.

Loans to individuals declined marginally to 9.252 billion leva in the January-April period, while business and retail deposits continued to increase, reaching 49.1 billion leva.