国际英语资讯:Non-performing loans in Italy to remain at pre-crisis level in 2020-2021: Outlook_时事

国际英语资讯:Non-performing loans in Italy to remain at pre-crisis level in 2020-2021: Outlook

"In such a weak scenario, banks can still recover profit margins by focusing on innovation and digitalization," Mignanelli stressed.

He suggested this strategy would allow banks to boost their loans to small companies -- which constituted the backbone of Italy's economy, the eurozone's third largest -- despite stagnation.

SHORT-TERM FORECAST IN SLOWDOWN SCENARIO

The Outlook predicted that loans deterioration rates of non-financial firms "will slightly increase again" in the next two years, and specifically from 3.1 percent by end of 2019 to 3.3 percent by end of 2021.

This was based on a macroeconomic scenario in which the Italian gross domestic product (GDP) was expected to remain almost flat in 2019, and to grow by less than 1 percent in 2020-2021, ABI and Cerved explained.

"Such rise (in loans deterioration rates) will affect companies of all sizes, all production sectors, and all territorial areas," they wrote.

The Outlook predicted that the inflows of new NPLs among large companies would increase "by five decimal points, stabilizing at 2 percent" by the end of 2021.

Medium and small-sized firms would reach 2.2 percent in the same period, while micro enterprises would "remain the most risky ones, with rates at 3.5 percent."

As for the productive sectors, the report predicted construction would still record the highest percentage of new NPLs at the end of the forecast period (2021), while manufacturing and services would show a more limited rise.