The households’ net creditor position stood at 59.6 billion lei (EUR12.6 billion) in March 2019, following an annual increase of some 21.5% over the first quarter of 2018.
While the position of net creditor in foreign currency went up 66.2% to RON42.9 billion, compared with the year-ago period, the position of net creditor in lei dropped 28.4% to RON16.6 billion in March 2019, because loans in domestic currency have been growing faster than the leu deposits.
“The households consolidated their net creditor position vis-à-vis the banking sector in the first quarter of 2019. Amid a faster paced growth of loans compared with deposits, the net creditor position in domestic currency dropped in the first few months of 2019. On the other hand, the net position in foreign currency continued to improve, being 1.7 times higher than in the same time of 2018, “ reads the latest Financial stability Report of Romania’s central bank.
Households became the net creditor of banks in 2012, after having been net debtors during the boom years, when loans equaled and then outstripped deposits. The economic crisis ended that, and the reversal was slow over several years.(EUR1=RON4.7229)
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)