By March 1, 2008, net total assets of Georgian commercial banks (in current prices) grew 6.7% compared to the beginning of the year – a 480.2 mln lari increase to a total of 7,688.4 mln lari.

Starting from the beginning of the year, the banking sector's own funds (equity capital) have grown by 212.7 mln lari (14.5%) to equal 1,683.7 mln lari, which makes up 21.9% of commercial banks' net total assets (compared to 20.4% at the beginning of the year). The growth of paid-in capital constituted 48.3 mln lari (10.6%). Compared to the beginning of the year, the number of foreign-controlled banks has increased from 12 to14 and their share in the banks' total equity capital increased by 1.1 basis points to 65.2%.

Incomes of active commercial banks grew 2.2 times year-on-year and equaled 249.7 mln lari.

In January and February, commercial banks' net profit equaled 17.5 mln lari, which is 1.6 mln lari (i.e. 8.4%) less than the indicator for the same period of last year.

The growth of crediting of the real sector of the economy facilitated the growth of interest incomes. As compared with the last year, this indicator has grown by 65.8% and made up 56.4% of total incomes.

Total value of commercial banks' expenditures constituted 226.9 mln lari in January-February, which is 2.6 times higher than the indicator for the same period of last year. The significant part of the growth of expenditures falls on the interests paid on the loans provided by non-resident banks and international financial organizations as well as on advertising, municipal charges and postal expenses. Losses according to the provision for loan losses of loans grew by 9.1% year-on-year.

The level of concentration of the banking sector's assets has remained practically unchanged compared to last year. The share of five banks having the largest assets within the total amount of the banking sector assets has grown from 80.4% at the beginning of the year to 80.9%.

Profitability of the banking sector assets (ROA) equaled 1.4% and profitability of capital (ROE) - 6.5% (compared to 2.6% and 12.3% respectively for the same period of last year).

Current statistical information is published on the statistics page of the NBG's website.