ROME: Non-performing loans at Italian banks totalled 185.5 billion euros ($199 billion) in January, up 15.4 percent from a year earlier, central bank data showed, as persistent recession weighs on lenders’ balance sheets even as the economy recovers. Sofferenze, or loans least likely to be repaid, were up 15.2 percent in December totalling 183.7 billion euros at the end of last year.
Bank lending to non-financial companies fell 2.8 percent in January, which marked the 33rd consecutive month of decline, the Bank of Italy said on Tuesday.
December’s 2.3 percent drop in loans to companies had been the smallest in two years.
