Lending down and deposits up in February as Romanian companies save more in RON, avoid forex loans

Lending in Romania was slightly down in February, but the drop in loans was counterbalanced by a double digit growth in deposits, recent data from the country's National Bank reveals. The biggest drop was in corporate loans in foreign currencies, while the biggest increase was in corporate deposits in RON, statistics show. This means companies preferred to save money in the local currency, rather than take loans in other currencies. Lending in Romania went up year-on-year in February 2014, but only for loans in the local currency, whereas forex-denominated loans were down both on the retail and corporate segments. RON-denominated non-government loans were up 2.1 percent year-on-year in February, to some EUR 19.1 billion. More than half of it were corporate loans. Forex-denominated loans stood at some EUR 29.3 billion, down 4.4 percent year-on-year. Corporate loans posted the biggest decrease – down 7.9 percent, while household loans were down only 1 percent. Month – on – month, lending only slightly slowed down in February, with loans in RON up 0.2 percent, and those in foreign currencies down 0.4 percent compared to January 2014. Deposits were up 10.7 percent year-on-year in February 2014, to some EUR 48.1 billion. From January to February, deposits grew by 0.7 percent. The biggest growth on the deposits segment was for corporate deposits in RON, 22.3 percent year-on-year, to some EUR 13.1 billion. In terms of size, household deposits in RON were almost double the household deposits in other currencies: EUR 18.2 billion and EUR 11 billion, respectively. These were up 0.2 and 0.1 percent respectively. Full statistics are here (in English). editor@romania-insider.com