UniCredit Says Credit Drought Is ‘Manageable’ in East Europe
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UniCredit SpA, eastern Europe’s biggest bank by assets, said the economies of Romania, Serbia, Croatia and Bulgaria are most at risk due to western banks’ efforts to raise capital and cut assets.
The Balkan countries would lose most loan growth among their eastern European peers if western banks cut funding of their subsidiaries by about a third, UniCredit said in a study released in Vienna today. Even under that scenario, lending would still grow, the bank said. It expects no lending cuts in Turkey and Russia due to the western European deleveraging.