Tbilisi (GBC) - The growth of lending slowed down. As of February, the annual ratio is +15.9%.

By January, it was 17.1%, which is explained by the seasonal factor in the banking sector. January-February, November-December are passive months.

In addition, the rate of foreign currency lending has also slowed down, by 3 percentage points at once, from 17.3% to 14.3%.

According to the NBG's February analytical tables, the decrease is mainly due to the decrease in business lending.

The trend was influenced by local and global factors, including high exchange rates due to global tightening of monetary policy. as well as internal regulations.

Raising the foreign currency lending limit to 300,000 GEL increased access for hedged clients, but limited it for unsecured clients.

To compensate for this, the NBG reduced the reserve requirement from 25% to 20% and allowed banks more flexibility for liquidity management; Also, the 1% buffer was paid over 4 years.

Business lending has also decreased in GEL. Annual growth decreased by 0.1% point. In December, the contribution of corporate lending to total growth was 5.7%, in January it was 5.6%.