The Turkish banking industry has achieved its highest ever annual profit in 2020, overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.

Lenders saw their net profits jump 22.3% to around TL 59.97 billion (about $8.5 billion) last year, according to data compiled from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK) by Anadolu Agency (AA) Sunday.

The figure was up from over TL 49 billion in 2019.

The rise in the net profits come as the banks, particularly public ones, boosted their lending to help businesses and citizens cushion the fallout from the pandemic and rejuvenate the economy.

Yet, the lending eased in the last months of the year after the Central Bank of the Republic of Turkey (CBRT) hiked its policy rate to 17% from 10.25% to battle inflation that has been stuck in the double digits.

The lenders’ net profits were still up 7.2% to TL 2.7 billion in December but still marked the second-lowest month in the year.

Their interest revenues increased by 0.7% last year and stood at TL 423.5 billion as of the end of December, up from TL 420.5 billion in 2019, the data showed.

The net interest revenues have surged by 32.3% to TL 214.8 billion as of the end of December compared to the previous year.

The interest revenues from loans throughout the 12-month period reached TL 308.1 billion, of which TL 72.1 billion came from consumer loans, TL 10.5 billion from credit cards and TL 36 billion from commercial loan installments. The remaining TL 189.5 billion came from interests on other loans.

The banks’ total interest expenditures were down 19.2% to TL 208.7 billion, the data showed, down from TL 258.2 billion in 2019.