BNR: Romania private lending continued to decline in February

The lending activity in Romania settled on a downward slope, as demand for loans was reduced in the second month of the year, despite interest rate reductions in recent months.

Lending in Romania went up in February 2014 compared to the previous year, 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 in February, to some EUR 19.1 billion.

Forex-denominated loans dropped to EUR 29.3 billion, down 4.4 percent. Corporate loans posted the biggest decrease – down 7.9 percent, while household loans were down only 1 percent.

Compared to the previous 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.

Deposits increased 10.7 percent on the year, to EUR 48.1 billion. From January to February, deposits grew by 0.7 percent.

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The biggest growth on the deposits segment was for corporate deposits in RON, up 22.3 percent on the 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.