KIEV, Feb. 14 ??“ The pace of growth in the credit portfolios of Ukrainian banks in 2007 will be lower than last year, according to Deputy Head of the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) Oleksandr Savchenko.

"Today, we will pay more attention to inflation. I believe that the pace of growth in credits will not be so high as last year... Money should be more expensive for banks, and they should slightly slow this pace," he told the press on Tuesday.