Romanians’ savings grew by 8.2 pc at end-2016, central bank shows

Deposits of non-government resident customers added 4.2 percent month on month to RON 274,219.2 million in December 2016, meaning an 8.2 percent increase year-on-year, National Bank of Romania (BNR) data reveal.

RON-denominated household deposits increased by 3.6 percent to RON 103,643.6 million. At end-December 2016, household deposits in domestic currency rose by 13.0 percent (13.7 percent in real terms) against end-December 2015.

At the same time, RON-denominated corporate deposits (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) added 8.1 percent to RON 84,759.4 million. At end-December 2016, RON-denominated corporate deposits climbed by 6.4 percent (7.0 percent in real terms) year on year.

Forex-denominated deposits of resident households and companies (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) went up 1.4 percent to RON 85,816.2 million when expressed in domestic currency (when expressed in EUR, forex deposits moved ahead 0.9 percent to EUR 18,897.7 million).

In year-on-year comparison, residents’ forex deposits expressed in RON advanced 4.5 percent (when expressed in EUR, residents’ forex deposits rose by 4.2 percent); household forex deposits climbed by 8.6 percent when expressed in domestic currency (when expressed in EUR, household forex deposits expanded by 8.2 percent) and forex deposits of legal entities (non-financial corporations and non-monetary financial institutions) moved down 3.7 percent when expressed in RON (when expressed in EUR, forex deposits of resident legal entities contracted by 4.0 percent).

As regards the broad money, they amounted to RON 314,161.8 million at end-2016, up 4.1 percent (3.8 percent in real terms) month on month. In year-on-year comparison, broad money rose 9.7 percent (10.3 percent in real terms).

The same central bank data show that non-government loans granted by credit institutions went down 0.2 percent (down 0.5 percent in real terms) from November 2016 to RON 220,091.3 million. RON-denominated loans expanded 0.4 percent (0.1 percent in real terms), whereas foreign currency-denominated loans shrank 1.1 percent when expressed in RON and 1.6 percent when expressed in EUR.

Government credit contracted by 0.3 percent in December 2016 from a month earlier, to RON 93,273.6 million. At end-December 2016, government credit advanced 4.1 percent (4.6 percent in real terms) from the same year-ago period.