SEVERAL Bulgarians made very substantial borrowings from commercial banks, according to the most recent report by Bulgarian National Bank (BNB), published on August 19. The number of credit millionaires in the country is growing, the report revealed, which covers the first half of 2004. Seventy-three Bulgarians have credit they took as individuals for amounts over 500 000 leva each. About 78 million leva is distributed among them, which brings the total amount to more than a million leva a person. The list of wealthy Bulgarians is becoming longer, according to the section of the BNB report dealing with deposits. A total of 8389 local citizens now have deposits of more than 50 000 leva. This is a record, because the 31 per cent was achieved for a period of six months only. At the end of last year, depositors of big amounts of money totalled only 6419. The average amount for each of these wealthy bank account holders is 106 740 leva. Bulgarians still save money in foreign currencies. Only one out of six large deposits is in Bulgarian leva. Banks extended about 546.4 million leva worth of credit only in July, which is a new record high after the April peak, the BNB data also show. The volume of credit marked a 4.8 per cent increase in July. The April boom hit 409 million leva but credit expansion started to slow down a bit in the following months. The total amount of the credit extended in July to non-financial institutions and other clients was more than 11.8 billion leva. July credit growth moved against the expected trend. During the second quarter of the year, the restrictive measures on crediting in the country, prompted by the International Monetary Fund, started to be implemented. The forecast was that the results of these practices would become apparent in the third and the fourth quarters of the year. Credit growth started to drop from 3.99 per cent in April, to 3.19 per cent in May, and to 2.62 per cent in June; when analysts started to comment on the psychological effect that the measures must have had on the banks. The growth of credit in Bulgaria on a yearly basis was then expected to fall to 35 per cent by the end of 2004. The banks’ credit portfolios are on average weighted to 69.5 per cent commercial loans, totalling 8.23 billion leva. A total of 2.3 billion leva is now the total of consumer credits extended in the country, a 4.1 per cent month-on-month rise. Mortgage loans increased to 662 million leva, up by 11.8 per cent compared to the end of June.