ROME: Non-performing loans at Italian banks totalled 187.3 billion euros ($201 billion) in February, up 15.3 percent from a year earlier, central bank data showed, highlighting fallout from Italy’s worst economic slump since World War 2.
Loans least likely to be repaid, or “sofferenze”, were up 15.4 percent in January at 185.5 billion euros.
Bank lending to non-financial companies, which has been falling since May 2012, dropped 3 percent in February, the Bank of Italy said.