MILAN, Jan 31 (Reuters) - The share of Italian banks'
corporate loans turning sour is set to further increase this
year, after rising for the first time in a decade in 2022, a
study published on Tuesday showed.
A report compiled by Italy's banking lobby ABI together with
Italian credit rating group Cerved said 2.3% of all new bank
loans to businesses were expected to become problmatic in 2022,
up from 2% the previous year.
In 2023, such a rate is seen rising further to 3.8% before
easing back to 3.4% in 2024. These levels are a far cry from the
7.5% peak seen a decade ago.
Italy's economy shrank by 0.1% in the fourth quarter of last
year from the previous three months, preliminary data showed on
Tuesday, a slightly smaller contraction than expected but still
raising fears of recession.
"The economic slowdown, rising inflation and interest rates
have caused a reversal in 2022 of the downward trend in the flow
of new impaired loans that had been observed since 2012", the
report said, adding also the end in 2023 of a number of
COVID-relief measures would also play a role.
(Reporting by Andrea Mandalà, editing by Valentina Za)
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