ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Hina) - Croatia is ushering World Savings Day, October 31, with continuing the trend of increasing citizens' savings. At the end of September, domestic and foreign currency deposits in banks reached almost 66.4 billion
kuna (approx. nine billion euros), most of which are foreign currency deposits (approx. EUR8 billion), and the rest are deposits in kuna.
ZAGREB, Oct 30 (Hina) - Croatia is ushering World Savings Day,
October 31, with continuing the trend of increasing citizens'
savings. At the end of September, domestic and foreign currency
deposits in banks reached almost 66.4 billion kuna (approx. nine
billion euros), most of which are foreign currency deposits
(approx. EUR8 billion), and the rest are deposits in kuna. #L#
At the same time, domestic and foreign currency loans to citizens on
the last day of September amounted to 39.3 billion kuna (approx.
EUR5 billion), of which 11.3 billion kuna (EUR1.5 billion) are
housing loans, the Croatian National Bank (HNB) reported.
This data once again indicates that Croatian citizens were mostly
saving in foreign currencies. This is also backed by information
that of the total foreign currency deposits in banks, as much as 84
percent are citizens' deposits.
At the end of September, Croatians had almost 18 billion kuna
(EUR2.4 billion) savings deposits in banks and 43.1 billion kuna
(EUR5.8 billion) in fixed deposit savings. This is a total of 61
billion kuna (EUR8.2 billion), which is an increase of 45.2 percent
at the annual level.
Good liquidity and increased deposits in banks at the end of last
and the beginning of this year foresaw such intensive loans in 2002.
Announcements that the loan mass could this year increase by about
20 percent are already being realised. Some analysts, however, are
warning about the dangers of such a strong expansion of loans.
In the banking sector, the continuation of harsh competition in
loans to the private sector is evident, particularly in loans to
citizens.
According to sectors, the fastest growth of loans is present in the
population, while loans to companies are growing at a significantly
slower rate. While loans to citizens in 2001 rose by 29.3 percent,
data for this year's first eight months speak about an annual growth
of 45.2 percent for citizens, and rise in loans for companies
remained at the same level as last year, at 21.3 percent.
So far in 2002, the part of loans to citizens has increased, making
up for 46.8 percent of overall loans, which is an increase of three
percentage points in comparison to the end of last year.
Loans to public companies made up for 4.3 percent, while loans to
other companies made up for 48.9 percent of overall loans.
(hina) lml sb