Domestic currency deposits amounted to 22.74 billion kuna at the end of February, while foreign currency deposits stood at 80.28 billion kuna.
In January and February, kuna deposits went up a mere 226 million kuna, up 1.2 per cent from the previous December. The annual growth rate, which was 22.4 per cent in December, dropped to 17.2 per cent in January and to 14.5 per cent in February.
The slowed down growth of kuna deposits was mainly due to lower deposits by companies, which were down 1.14 billion kuna from December 2004, while citizen deposits maintained the trend of stable growth, going up 974 million kuna.
At the end of February, citizen deposits totalled 12.48 billion kuna, while company deposits were 7.6 billion kuna.
Foreign currency deposits were 80.28 billion kuna at the end of February, nominally 1.4 billion kuna lower than at the end of January, which was due to the appreciation of the national currency. Disregarding the influence of the exchange rate, foreign currency deposits were on the same level as in December.
On the annual level, foreign currency deposits at the end of February this year were nominally up 5.6 per cent or 4.2 billion kuna from February 2004. Foreign currency deposits by companies continued to grow faster than those by citizens, although citizens account for 84 per cent of banks' foreign currency deposits.
At the end of February, foreign currency deposits by citizens totalled 67.4 billion kuna, up 2.8 billion kuna or nominally 4.3 per cent from February 2004. Foreign deposits by companies were 12.2 billion kuna, up 1.35 billion or nominally 12.4 per cent from February 2004.
(EUR1 = 7.3 kuna)