The amount of RON loans granted to companies and households stood at RON86.2 billion, according to central bank data. The increase tops 2% against the similar period of last year. Foreign currency lending has shrunk by over 4% in the past year.
Thus, the weight of RON funding has added 1.5 percentage points in the past year and hit 39.5%. Yet, overall, lending declined by 2% against February 2013. The drop is similar with that of January.
“Data on private lending do not show any notable improvement month-on-month. The solid performance of RON lending is mainly due to mortgages released through the First Home program, which was re-penciled last year to the very end of propping RON lending,” says Anca Jelea, Raiffeisen Bank analyst.
February marked a speeding up of RON retail lending. The advance amounted to 0.4% against the previous month and to 2% against the same month of last year. The volume of RON loans granted to the population in late February revolved around RON35 billion.
However, RON corporate lending slowed down in February after it had advanced by over 1% month-on-month in January. RON funding to companies went beyond RON51 billion last month. Last year, corporate lending entered a process whereby foreign currency funding was being replaced by RON funding amid a narrowing interest spread and as central bank restrictions on foreign currency corporate lending came into force.
Saving advanced further, with the total volume of population and corporate deposits reaching RON216.6 billion. The increase against the same period of last year stands at over 10%.
(English version by Catalina Apostoiu)