business and economy
Kazakh banks adapt to life in the slow lane
Kazakh banks had been growing at dizzying speed until last summer when a sudden liquidity crunch left themstranded with over $40bn worth of foreign debts, $14.8bn of which matures this year.
By Isabel Gorst (Financial Times)
Adil was a bodyguard for a banker until last summer, when Kazakhstan’s banking sector ran into difficulties in the wake of the global credit squeeze and he was laid off.
“I learned how to spin a Hyundai on two wheels and had a licence to carry a gun,” he says.
He now has a duller job in the traffic police and is earning 10 times less.
Kazakh banks had been growing at dizzying speed, feasting on cheap foreign loans to fund a domestic consumer boom driven by the country’s windfall oil revenues.
When international credit dried up last August, they were stranded with over $40bn worth of foreign debts, $14.8bn of which matures this year.
Like Adil, the banks are adapting to life in the slow lane.
Their overall credit growth, after soaring by an average annual 100 per cent in recent years, has now sunk to single digits.
Jurgen Rigterink, the Kazakhstan country representative at ABN-Amro, says: “The banks had some very, very hot years, but now there is a cold shower.”
By Isabel Gorst (Financial Times)
Tags: Related articles
Discussion
No comments for “Kazakh banks adapt to life in the slow lane”
Post a comment