ROME: Gross bad loans at Italian banks rose further in January to 202.05 billion euros ($222 billion), data showed on Wednesday, highlighting the protracted damage to lenders’ balance sheets from a deep recession that ended in late 2014.
However, the residual value of the stock of bad loans – which takes into account writedowns booked by lenders – fell to 83.61 billion euros in January from 88.95 billion euros in December reflecting higher loan loss provisions by banks at the end of the year.
The Bank of Italy said gross bad loans were up 9 percent from a year earlier in January, compared to an annual rise of 9.4 percent in December when the stock stood at 200.94 billion euros.
