The clients of the commercial banks have lost some of their appetite for loans in November last year, as the depreciation of the ROL by nearly 5% in only one month disheartened those seeking to take out euro-denominated credits.
From a 5.7% growth pace in October, non-government lending slowed down by more than one percentage point in the eleventh month of last year, progressing by 4.5%.
If calculated in real terms, the growth for the first eleven months of 2003 reached an impressive level, 42.6%, which kept substantiating IMF's warnings about the inherent risks posed by such a high speed. Compared with November 2002, non-government lending progressed by 47.2% in real terms, much faster than in the October 2002-October 2003 interval.
The demand for loans in November focused on the domestic currency mainly. Subsequently, if calculated in euros, the lending in foreign currency rose only 1.4%, half the progress made in October. At the same time, the lending in ROL went up 6.1% compared to 5.7% in the previous month. As a result of these trends, non-governmental lending amounted to 288,999bn ROL (nearly 7 billion euros).
All in all, the banks kept posting significant growth of the credit portfolios, with the amount of loans granted to corporate and individual clients 4.5% higher than in October.
The population's savings in their turn increased by 1.4% to 97,160bn ROL in November and accounted for 22.8% of the money supply compared to 22.6% at the end of October. From November 2002 through November 2003, the population's savings increased 15.9% (1.2% in real terms). Inflation in this period reached 14.5%.
Savings in the banking system have been following a slightly upward trend since late last year, largely because of the interest policies most banks applied.
razvan.voican@zf.ro ; oana.nuta@zf.ro
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