Lending continues its upward trend, increasing by 7 pc in April, BNR shows

At end-April, broad money amounted to RON 257,575.6 million, up 0.8 percent (0.7 percent in real terms) month on month. In year-on-year comparison, broad money rose 6.9 percent (6.2 percent in real terms), National Bank of Romania (BNR) announced Wednesday in a press release.

RON-denominated non-government loans granted by credit institutions went up 7.7 percent (7 percent in real terms) from end-April 2014, on account of the 17.5 percent hike (16.7 percent in real terms) in household loans, whereas foreign currency-denominated loans fell by 11.6 percent when expressed in RON and by 11.0 percent when expressed in EUR. Non-government loans decreased by 3.8 percent (down 4.4 percent in real terms). Compared with end-March 2015, non-government loans shrank 0.2 percent (down 0.3 percent in real terms) to RON 210,078.2 million. RON-denominated loans went up 0.9 percent (0.8 percent in real terms), while foreign currency-denominated loans contracted by 1.1 percent when expressed in RON and by 1.3 percent when expressed in EUR.

Government credit contracted by 5.1 percent last month to RON 85,709.9 million, but increased by 7.6 percent (6.9 percent in real terms) from the same year-ago period. Deposits of non-government resident customers inched up 0.8 percent month on month to RON 228,494.5 million in April 2015.

According to the same BNR data, RON-denominated household deposits added 0.8 percent to RON 87,832.7 million. At end-April, household deposits in domestic currency rose by 7.4 percent (6.7 percent in real terms) against the same month of previous year.

RON-denominated corporate deposits (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) went up 1.9 percent to RON 62,606.7 million. At end-April 2015, RON-denominated corporate deposits climbed by 8.7 percent (8.0 percent in real terms) year on year.

Central bank also reveals that forex-denominated deposits of resident households and corporates (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) decreased by RON 35.0 million to RON 78,055.1 million when expressed in domestic currency (when expressed in EUR, forex deposits went down 0.3 percent to EUR 17,660.3 million). In year-on-year comparison, residents’ forex deposits expressed in RON advanced 3.2 percent (when expressed in EUR, residents’ forex deposits added 3.9 percent); household forex deposits grew by 5.9 percent when expressed in domestic currency (when expressed in EUR, household forex deposits increased by 6.7 percent) and forex deposits of legal entities (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) declined by 2.0 percent when expressed in RON (when expressed in EUR, forex deposits of resident legal entities went down 1.4 percent).