In the first 11 months of 2011, the loan indebtedness of Serbia's citizens amounted to RSD 541.78 billion, reflecting an increase of 5.2 percent, the Association of Serbian Banks released.

Only during November, citizens' debt with respect to bank loans has risen by 1.1 percent, from RSD 535.66 to RSD 541.78 billion (EUR 1= RSD 104).

For the first 11 months, the cash loans experienced the largest increase of 10.1 percent (from RSD 129.87 to RSD 143.04 billion), followed by agricultural loans - 5.2 percent (from RSD 24.06 to RSD 25.31 billion).

Consumer loans saw a drop of 2.9 percent, from RSD 39.87 to RSD 38.71 billion, while the loans aimed at debt refinancing showed a slide of 2.2 percent, from RSD 34.9 billion to RSD 34.15 billion.

As regards company loans, they were increased from RSD 1, 165.49 billion to 1,233.27 billion, reflecting a 5.8 percent rise in the first 11 months of 2011, while during November, a 0.6 percent slide was recorded.

As for entrepreneurs, their loan debt saw an increase of 51.2 percent, from RSD 51.77 to RSD 78.29 billion, whereas in November, a rise of 0.2 percent was noted.

Over two-month delay in repaying the citizen loans stayed at the same level in November, in comparison to the previous month equaling 3.7 percent of the total debt.

On the other hand, the number of companies which were over 15 days late with paying the debt in November rose from 14.8 to 15.6 percent, while entrepreneurs reduced the delay from 12.7 to 12.4 percent.