The population in the first quarter again became a net creditorof the banking system, in the context where deposits haveconstantly increased in the past year, fuelled by stringent cautionand the high interest rates offered by banks, in line with NBRdata. The amount of deposits in late March reached 99.7bn RON(around 24.5bn euros), exceeding by almost one billion and a halfthe amount of loans aimed by banks at the population. Instead,companies have worsened their position to the banking system, withthe deposit/loan ratio sliding to 66.7% in the first quarter from72.2% in December. "The improvement trend of the population'sposition to the banking system will maintain in the followingperiod because Romanians will save further amid a background ofcaution. People are saving more because they do not have a verypositive outlook to the future," said Ionut Dumitru,chief-economist of Raiffeisen Bank. However, population depositgrowth lost momentum at the start of this year against the sameperiod of 2009 as the population's disposable income startedshrinking. Moreover, interests are no longer a strong incentive forsaving.
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