Central bank: Non-government loans inch up 0.8 pct this January

Loans granted by credit institutions to the non-government sector were 0.8 pct higher (+0.4 pct in real terms) this January compared to December 2019, at 269.646 billion RON, the National Bank of Romania (BNR) said in a release on Tuesday.

RON-denominated loans accounted for 67.6 pct of the total, up 0.2 pct (-0.2 pct in real terms), and foreign currency-denominated loans expressed in domestic RON advanced by 1.9 percent (expressed in EUR, the increase was equally 1.9 pct).

Compared to the year-ago period, loans to the non-government sector were 6.9 pct higher (3.2 pct in real terms), on account of the 10 pct advance of the RON-denominated component (6.2 pct in real terms) and of the 1.1 pct increase in the foreign currency-denominated component expressed in RON (expressed in EUR, the forex component inched up 0.2 pct).

The credit to the general government was 2.7 pct higher in January 2020 compared to December 2019, at 119.4 billion RON, and 13.8 pct higher (9.8 pct in real terms) YoY.

Broad money (M3) as of end-January 2020 amounted to 419.528 billion RON, 0.7 pct down (-1.1 pct in real terms) from December 2019 and 9.7 pct higher compared to January 2019 (+5.8 pct in real terms).