Population savings get better

People’s deposits in the banking system have increased for the second month in a row, though it is estimated that State bonds were the most favoured. Since the beginning of the year, the yields of the treasury bonds issued by the Finance Ministry were higher than the interest rates offered by banks.

The banks’ interest rates for a one-month deposit were between 35-37%, while the yield of State bonds was 44%.

According to the latest information supplied by the National Bank of Romania (NBR), the value of the population’s savings increased by 2.9%, up to 45,829 billion lei, at a slower pace than the State bonds, which increased by 16%, reaching 9, 802 billion lei.

“The population’s savings were expected to register a downward trend. In my opinion, what happened last autumn was triggered by a lack of confidence in the banking system.

This is a good signal meaning that the banks gradually return to their basic position of mediating the money’s circulation,” a bank official commented. He added that people’s shift to the State bonds was a normal phenomenon.

“One who has to choose between a three-month banking deposit and a three-month State bond, opts for the latter due to its yield and safety,” he said.

The residents’ hard-currency denominated deposits, expressed in domestic currency, increased by 4.9% over the same period of the year. This increase mainly derived from population’s hard-currency deposits, which increased by 6.7%.

At the end of January, the money supply (M2) amounted to 180,108 billion lei, up 2,7% (6.2% in real terms) against the previous month.

The domestic net assets decreased by 9.9%, to 83,039 billion lei, while the domestic credit decreased by 2.3%, to 106,461 billion lei.

The negative balance of net assets increased by 6,629 billion lei. The 5% rise in the governmental credit, which reached 78,794 billion lei, was triggered by the 5.8% increase of the domestic-denominated component and the 4.5% increase of the hard-currency denominated component expressed in lei.

Net governmental credit lost 18.5%, down to 27,667 billion lei. This trend was triggered by the increased domestic currency liquidity of the State

Treasury, derived from a higher volume of collected taxes, the increase in the balance account of Finance Ministry’s hard currency liquidity, following the eurobond issue worth 154.1 million euros.