Bad loans +24% in May, says ABI

(ANSA) - Rome, July 22 - Non-performing loans exceeded 168.5 billion euros in May 2014, up 24% over the same month last year, Italian banking association ABI said Tuesday.
    The ratio of these bad loans, where the chance of repayment is low, to total loans in Italy was 8.9%.
    This was the highest since October 1998, ABI said. In June the total value of loans was 1.8427 trillion euros, down 2.2% over the same month in 2013.
    However, the drop was an improvement over the year-on-year data for the previous month, when total gross loans fell 3.1% over May 2013. Loans to families and businesses totaled 1.427 billion euros in June, down 1.4% over the same month in 2013.
    Business and family loans fell by 2.4% in May over the same month the previous year.