Skopje, 9 November 2022
In the past two and a half years, green lending increased by 55%. These are loans intended for projects that support sustainable, ecological purposes, or purposes that contribute to the green transition in society, such as the development of new ecological technology. The share of green loans in total loans also grows, but it is still at a low level. From the end of 2019, as of the first half of 2022, the share of green loans in total loans increased from 2.2% to 2.8%. The National Bank continues to carry out its activities for encouraging and raising the awareness of green lending.
According to the National Bank data, at the end of the first half of 2022, bank claims on the basis of green loans amount to Denar 11,136 million. For comparison, at the end of 2019 they amounted to Denar 7,176 million. The growth of green lending is mostly due to corporate loans. From the end of 2019, and as of the first half of 2022, green loans granted to companies have increased by Denar 3,748 million and account for 5% of total loans granted to companies. The growth of green loans to households is smaller and they account for only 0.7% of total household loans.
Climate changes have a negative impact on the economic growth and inflationary pressures, especially in less developed economies. An increasing number of central banks consider green financing as part of the mandate. The National Bank, recognizing the risks arising from climate changes in the long term, took a proactive stance and set the increased awareness of climate changes and the contribution to green sustainable economy as one of its strategic objectives.
Through a series of activities, our central bank contributes to encouraging green financing. Some of them are also the monetary measures, such as the decision to change the reserve requirement, which encourages lending to projects related to domestic production of electricity from renewable sources. This decision reduces the basis for allocating reserve requirement in denars by banks, by the amount of new loans for financing projects for domestic production of electricity from renewable sources.
The National Bank also develops a strategy for encouraging green financing, which envisages a series of activities, including preparation of guidelines for the banks' operations in the field of green finance, including for transparent financing. Green portfolio of securities in foreign reserves is also built, and from this year the National Bank also established a regular system of collecting more detailed data on green financing. To assess the resilience of the banking system to climate changes stress-tests are planned, which will require strengthening of the institutional capacity of both the regulator and the banks.