More and more Romanians prefer to save money and borrow in the national currency

More and more Romanians choose to borrow in the national currency and prefer to preserve their economies in RON, according to data published by the National Bank of Romania (BNR).

At end-February 2018, non-government loans granted by credit institutions advanced 0.2 percent (down 0.1 percent in real terms) from January 2018 to RON 233,326.3 million. RON-denominated loans expanded 0.4 percent (up 0.1 percent in real terms), whereas foreign currency-denominated loans decreased by RON 27.8 million when expressed in RON (down 0.1 percent when expressed in EUR), as a press release informs.

At end-February 2018, non-government loans went up 6.1 percent (1.4 percent in real terms) year on year, on the back of the 15.8 percent increase in RON-denominated loans (10.5 percent in real terms) and the 7.0 percent decline in foreign currency-denominated loans expressed in RON (when expressed in EUR, forex loans dropped 9.9 percent).

As regards the government credit, this added 3.7 percent in February 2018 from the previous month to RON 98,415.9 million. At end-February 2018, government credit advanced 2.3 percent (down 2.3 percent in real terms) versus the same year-ago period.

According to central bank data, deposits of non-government resident customers went up 0.9 percent month on month to RON 306,642.6 million in February 2018.

“RON-denominated household deposits increased by 1.2 percent to RON 113,682.8 million. At end-February 2018, household deposits in domestic currency rose by 8.8 percent (3.9 percent in real terms) against end-February 2017.

RON-denominated corporate deposits (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) increased by 0.4 percent to RON 94,778.2 million. At end-February 2018, RON-denominated deposits of other sectors climbed by 17.7 percent (12.4 percent in real terms) year on year,” the release reads.

Forex-denominated deposits of resident households and companies (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) added 0.9 percent to RON 98,181.6 million when expressed in domestic currency (when expressed in EUR, forex deposits moved up 0.8 percent to EUR 21,057.7 million). In year-on-year comparison, residents’ forex deposits expressed in RON advanced 13.4 percent (when expressed in EUR, residents’ forex deposits rose by 9.8 percent).