At the opposite pole, foreign currency-denominated deposits shrank by the equivalent of EUR600 million to EUR32.6 billion.
Overall, households and companies owned banking deposits worth RON315 billion (EUR71 billion) at the end of last year, around RON11 billion more than in September.
Savings accelerated toward yearend, after the volume of deposits had been relatively constant, at around RON305 billion, in the first half of 2013.
“The growth of domestic savings in a year dominated by the Fed’s withdrawal of monetary incentives and therefore by the shifting of capital flows on the short term is important for Romania. A current account gap of just 1% in the gross domestic product in 2013 and 2014, compared to 4% of GDP in 2012, will reduce external vulnerability,” said Eugen Sinca, chief-analyst at BCR.
The strongest contribution to the positive trend of saving was brought by corporate deposits, which added 5% in the past three months of 2013 and reached RON181 billion (the equivalent of EUR40 billion). Individuals’ deposits advanced by RON3 billion, to RON131 billion.
Over 90% of deposits (namely RON286 billion) were set up at banks participating in the domestic guarantee scheme, and the rest at Romanian branches of some foreign banks. The value of guaranteed deposits stood at RON161 billion.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)