Presenting the analysis in Zagreb on Friday, HUB president Zoran Bohacek said that the share of loans granted to the state was as usual, while household loans went up slightly.

The placement of loans to the corporate sector in 2010 rose by 8.8 percent from 2009, reaching the pre-crisis level.

This rise is ascribed to a 15 percent growth in loans granted to big companies while loans approved to small and medium-sized companies dropped by 2 percent.

Bohacek said that the reason for this drop lay with risks in this segment and with a high rate of non-performing loans.

According to the analysis, non-performing loans in all sectors rose from 3.1 percent at the beginning of the crisis in 2008 to 8.3 percent at the end of 2010.

The share of bad loans in big companies rose from 2 percent in 2008 to 9.2 percent at the end of 2010; small and medium-sized companies saw an increase in bad loans from 6.7 percent to 17.2 percent, while the share of bad loans in household loans was 5.6 percent.

Banks project a deceleration of the growth rate of non-perfoming loans in 2011 and their drop in 2012, which should consequently contribute to a decline in interest rates.

Bohacek recalled that interest rates in Croatia were higher than in the European Union, but that they were lower than interest rates in EU members which had not yet introduced the euro as their currency.

According to a survey conducted among commercial banks, in 2011 they expect housing loans and loans to small and medium-sized businesses to start recovering at a rate of 6 percent.

The banks also expect loans to big companies to continue growing at a 12-percent rate.

The HUB analysis also shows a slow decline in interest rates.