He said during the parliamentary hearings on the situation in the agricultural sector and its impact on financial relations, lending and economic support to agricultural producers that the banking sector continues to lend to agriculture, but faces objective limitations. Financing is provided only to those enterprises whose sustainability is certain.
“The banking sector finances agriculture, but we must realize that it cannot lend to projects or companies for which there is no certainty of repayment or where there is over-indebtedness. Companies that are in difficulty cannot be financed solely through bank loans. That is the situation,” Norok said.
According to him, the experience of the past years has shown that banks are ready to step up to the plate.
At the same time, according to the head of the Association of Banks, lending to the agricultural sector not only does not deteriorate, but also grows, and the quality of the loan portfolio is improving.
“According to the available data, we do not see a decrease in financing of the agricultural sector. The second point is that we see an improvement in the quality of the loan portfolio in agriculture, and this is, in my opinion, the best indicator in the last three years. If last year during the same period the share of problem loans amounted to 18%, then in March this year it dropped to 9%,” he said.
The deputies disagreed with this assessment of the situation, questioning the logic in which farmers complain about the lack of credit, while the volume of financing is growing.
The deputies suggested considering the possibility of restructuring loans for agrarians.
“Is it their fault that the bank rate has risen, that there is a war and so on? We have situations when economic agents for 15 years paid interest, penalties, absolutely everything – they have grown in your eyes, and now you say that you can not lend them? Either we solve this problem or it will have serious consequences!” – MP Sergiu Stefanco stated.
