The banking sector in the first half of this year witnessed high liquidity and a rise in assets, loans, own funds and bank deposits. At the end of June, the profit in the banking system came to 1.6 billion lei, an increase of 80.4% compared with the same period last year, IPN reports.

The National Bank of Moldova said that the increase in profit was due to the 1.4 billion lei rise in interest revenue (mainly from lending activity), the 249.8 million lei rise in revenues from differences in the exchange rate, the 243.8 million lei rise in revenues from honorariums and commissions.

The deposits made by private individuals and legal entities decreased in value following withdrawals made in the first half of the year.

Also, the absolute value of the expired and nonperforming loans increased and the indicators of the quality of loan portfolio worsened slightly as a result compared with the end of the previous year.

The gross (prudential) balance of loans represented 50% of all the assets or 60.2 billion lei, increasing in the period by 6.8% (3.8 billion lei). The volume of new loans provided in the first half of this year grew by 1.3% compared with the corresponding period last year.

On June 30, there were 11 licensed banks in the Republic of Moldova.