Building societies lend CZK 63bn in Jan-Oct, growth gets slower

Prague, Nov 17 (CTK) - Building societies in the Czech Republic lent over Kc63bn to individuals in January-October, 6 percent more than a year earlier, which means that the growth in the segment is getting slower, according to statistics of all building societies.

Until September, building societies were showing two-digit growths in the volume of loans provided.

All building societies even registered not only a lower number of loans in October, but with just one exception also a lower amount of the lent money. Raiffeisen stavebni sporitelna was the sole exception.

Reps of the building societies are of the opinion that the current global financial crisis is not to blame. Czechs in general are less interested in loans for housing purposes. The interest peaked last year.

For the whole of last year, building societies lent nearly Kc74bn, and the market in loans provided by building societies jumped by 40 percent year-on-year.

On the other hand, the number of new saving contracts, including those raising the amount of money to be saved, is on the rise.

The building societies signed over 783,000 new contracts in January-October, while in the whole of last year they signed 862,000 new contracts.

Czechs have always used home-building savings as a way of depositing money, above all because of the annual state support. But in the last few years, they also increasingly use the product to invest in new homes.