"Banks continue to lend actively. Their aggregate portfolio increased by more than 3%: loans to businesses grew by more than 600 million, and those to households by about 740 million euros," Vitas Vasiliauskas, the central bank governor, said at a news conference.
"However, lending to the public sector and to financial markets shrank. (The state social insurance fund) Sodra ceased to be banks' customer as a debtor. But overall, lending was quite active," he said.
Vasiliauskas noted that lending to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) grew at a faster rate than lending to large businesses.
"The three sectors where the rate of lending increased were trade, transport and manufacturing. A decrease took place in the real estate development and building segments," he said.
The aggregate bank loan portfolio grew by 3.2% in 2017 compared with 2016 to reach 18.6 billion loans. Loans to SMEs rose by 10.4% to 3.6 billion euros and loans to large businesses were up by 4.4% to 5.1 billion euros.
Lithuania's banks are forecast to increase their total lending by some 5% to 19.6 billion euros this year.
