At the end of October, Serbia's citizens owed, in terms of credit, RSD 500.52 billion ( EUR1=RSD107) which represents a 1.1 percent increase in comparison to the previous month, Secretary General of the Association of Serbian Banks Veroljub Dugalic stated on Monday.

“If we eliminate the impact of inflation, that means that in October there was a stagnation as regards bank loans to citizens,” Dugalic said at a press conference.

During the previous month the refinance loans had the greatest growth- 2.6 percent reaching RSD 48.5 billion, while consumer loans increased by 2.1 percent and amounted to RSD 37.2 billion.

Cash credits raised by 1.9 percent reaching RSD 115.6 billion, while housing loans increased by 0.4 percent and amounted to RSD 274.6 billion.

The companies also experienced a 1.9 percent increase in terms of borrowing, which corresponds to the level of inflation, thus reaching RSD 1,152.2 billion, Dugalic emphasized.

The positive news is that only 14.3 percent of companies fail to service the loan in time, while the same figure for citizens underwent a slight increase from 3.4 to 3.5 percent, Dugalic pointed out.