Suspended debt repayments at the request of borrowers spiked during the coronavirus outbreak to €1.19 bln on May 8 from €894 mln on April 24, according to Central Bank of Cyprus (CBC) data.
Under the emergency government measures to control the spread of COVID-19, borrowers can apply for a suspension of instalments and interest payment on their loans.
Gross carrying amount of the suspended loans was €10.15 bln on May 8, from €7.39 bln on April 24, of which €5.96 bln were related to business loans and the remaining €4.18 bln was household debt.
According to data on loans with less than 30 days of arrears in both licensed credit institutions and credit acquisition companies, from the total of suspended instalments of € 1.19 bln, €831.79 mln related to corporate loans and €360.22 mln were household loans.
Some 43,632 borrowers applied for a loan suspension, of which 38,3276 were for households and 5,305 for businesses.
The suspension of instalments concerned a total of 76,057 credit facilities, of which 63,206 were related to household facilities and 12,851 business facilities.
The largest amount of corporate loans for which a suspension of instalments was requested was in the hospitality and catering sector with a gross value of €1.59 bln from 642 borrowers.
The suspended loans requested for real estate business was €1.07 bln (580 borrowers), for wholesale and retail trade €933.3 mln (1,543 borrowers) and mixed loans €909.2 mln ( 506 borrowers).
The value of the loans requested for suspension in the manufacturing sector was €378.3 mln (509 borrowers).
The sector of professional, scientific and technical activities followed with a total loan value of €288.9 mln (358 borrowers), transport and storage with €192 mln (143 borrowers) and health and social services sector with €109.4 mln (121 borrowers).
According to the CBC, in the field of education, the gross value of the loans requested for suspension until May 8 amounted to €97.5 mln (95 borrowers).
The value of the loans requested for suspension in communication and information technology amounted to €55.2 mln (101 borrowers) while for agriculture, forestry, and fisheries the value of loans was €46.1 mln (102 borrowers).
