MOSCOW, June 25. /TASS/. The portfolio of corporate loans of Russian banks grew by 1.7% in May following a 1.9% increase in April. Growth of foreign currency loans of legal entities also slowed down from 2.5% in April to 1.4% in the reporting period, according to files released by the Bank of Russia.

"In May, the corporate portfolio climbed by as much as 1.3 trillion rubles, or $14.5 bln (+1.7%) following +1.9% in April and +1.8% in March. Meanwhile a large bridge loan, which was repaid in June, strongly influenced the growth of the portfolio. Net of this loan the growth roughly equaled 1.1 trillion rubles, or $12.3 bln (+1.4%), which is already notably lower than in April, and closer to our monthly growth forecast," the regulator said.

Loans in rubles gained 900 bln rubles ($10 bln), excluding the bridge loan that has been mentioned. "About one quarter of this increase accrued to developers within project financing of housing construction. Other than that, growth was quite evenly divided between companies from various sectors," the Central Bank said, adding that companies continued actively investing even amid tight monetary conditions. "This is due to a large scale of government contracts, as well as high profit of companies from the majority of sectors, which makes them less sensitive to growth of rates and allows servicing loans," according to the files.