Interest rates not expected to drop anytime soon

If they do drop, it will be by a little at the end of the year, experts predict. There will be no return to the credit levels in 2006-2007. Considering that fiscal resources are still expensive and the interest on deposits is maintained at high levels, the interest on loans and credit products will probably be sustained as well, said Tihomir Toshev, chairman of the Association of Loan Consultants in Bulgaria. He believes interest rates will start dropping gradually toward the year's end. The economy and the bank sector are marred by uncertainty. As we can see the staff is getting fired, we can't expect interest rates to drop, said Petar Ganev of the Institute for market economy. He thinks that if banks had such intentions this would have happened by now. What we saw as reducing loan interest in the US and Europe was actually a reduction of central banks' interest rates, said Petar Andronov, CEO of EIBank. Our central bank does not fulfill this function, which is why this didn't happen here, he explained. I hope the rates won't keep rising in 2009 because this problem started in 2008, Andronov added. EIbank does not plan to push up interest soon. I hope we are not forced to do this by situational factors, he declared. Loan interest rates in Bulgaria have never been on par with those in Europe, not least because the risk level is much higher here, commented representatives of UniCredit Bulbank. Maintaining high interest levels on deposits will probably affect both old and new loan interest rates, the bank reported.