17/03/2020

Countercyclical Buffer Rate for the Republic of Serbia Kept Unchanged

At its meeting of 12 March 2020, the NBS Executive Board decided to keep the countercyclical capital buffer (CCyB) rate for the Republic of Serbia at 0%, in order to support bank credit activity amid heightened global uncertainty caused by the coronavirus.

As part of its responsibility to set measures and activities aimed at maintaining and strengthening financial stability, and pursuant to the Decision on Capital Adequacy of Banks (RS Official Gazette, Nos 103/2016, 103/2018 and 88/2019), the NBS calculates on a quarterly basis the reference guide based on which it sets the CCyB rate for the Republic of Serbia.

The reference guide is calculated based on the deviation of the credit-to-GDP ratio from its long-term trend. December 2019 data show that the share of total loans in GDP equalled 77.4%, while the estimated credit-to-GDP gap was -5.1 percentage points. Though rising, the estimated credit-to-GDP gap is still below its long-term trend. Given the faster closing of the gap in some segments of household lending, the NBS worked proactively, adopting a set of measures in December 2018 with a view to mitigating this risk to financial stability.

Additional information about the CCyB and the explanation for the above decision are available on the NBS website, under Financial Stability, Capital Buffers.

Financial Stability Department