Population refocuses on saving in January

The month of January confirmed the trend of the population to refocus on saving, after the last two years had shown that there was a big thirst for consumer finance. The maintained high interests paid by banks for deposits in RON persuaded clients to put more money in the bank. In January, the population’s deposits in RON climbed 8%, according to NBR data, to 30.45 billion RON (equivalent to 8.9 billion euros). Compared with January last year, deposits increased 31% in real terms. Foreign currency deposits saw an even faster growth, increasing by 44.5% from January 2006 to January this year, to a sum equivalent to 16.4 billion RON (4.8 billion euros). Deposits had seen sustained growth ever since the previous few months. In fact, bankers anticipate that 2007 will be the year of savings products and real estate funding, marking the end of credit supremacy. Companies did, however, lower their deposits in January, especially those in a foreign currency, which declined 5.5% against the first month of 2006. Starting 2007, the NBR changed the reporting system, adapting to the model of the European Central Bank – the European System of Accounts.