The bankers are starting to look warily towards the centre and south-east of the country, where the lower economic power of their customers is beginning to show in the significant rise in overdue payments on loans, which have even exceeded 5% of the total loans granted in some cases.

Salaj is the first among the counties with the highest rate of past due loans, whose value exceeds 5.3% of the total loans taken out by both individual clients and by the companies in the county, according to ZF’s calculations based on NBR statistics.

The total value of the loans taken out by the clients of the banks in Salaj amounted to 2.13 billion RON (about 509 million euros) at the end of April, while the past due loans amounted to 114 million RON, down 12.3% from the previous month.

In comparison, total past due loans amounted to 5.03 billion RON or 2.49% of the total volume of loans in the entire country.

There are a number of factors that influence the positioning of the counties in the ranking of those with past due loans, such as unemployment rates, commercial flows and transactions, extent of banking knowledge, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, says Lucian Anghel, chief economist of BCR.

"It is only natural that in a county whose economic power is lower, the past due loan rate should be higher. Also very important is the type of loans granted, whether they are secured or not. In such counties, for instance, the loans in foreign currency, which entail certain guarantees, are low in value," Anghel explained.

The exact opposites of this are Cluj and Constanta counties, where past due loans amount to 1.77% and 1.9% of the total loans. In Bucharest, the past due loan rate stood at 2.42% of total and at 3.24% for loans in RON.

Second in the ranking of those falling behind with their payments are the residents in Ialomita county, wit