On Friday, January 28, the Central Bank presented a report on the status of loans and deposits in the Cyprus banking system for December 2021.
According to the country's main financial institution, the number of deposits in local banks increased in the last month of 2021, while loans, on the contrary, decreased. At the same time, the liquidity of the system has reached a record high level.
Credits
The total volume of new loans in December 2021 recorded a net increase of 386 million euros compared to a net decrease of 3.9 million euros in November 2021.
The annual growth rate was 0.8% compared to 1.4% in November 2021.
The total balance of loans in December 2021 decreased by 1.9 billion euros to 29.9 billion euros compared to 31.8 billion euros in December 2020.
Loans to residents of Cyprus year-on-year in December 2021 increased by 1.7% compared to 2.5% in November 2021.
In turn, consumer loans in December increased by 1% compared with an increase of 2.1% in November, in the housing sector the growth was 5% from 5.4%, and in the business sector - 4.2% compared with an increase of 4.1% in November.
Deposits
Deposits in December 2021 recorded a net increase of 331.2 million euros compared to a net increase of 480.8 million euros in November 2021. The annual growth rate reached 5.7% compared to 5.8% in November 2021.
The balance of deposits at the end of the year reached 42.3 billion euros against 42 billion euros last month and 39.8 billion euros in December 2020.
Deposits of residents of third countries in December 2021 decreased to 6.35 billion euros from 6.36 billion euros last month. At the same time, in December 2020, this figure was equal to 5.9 billion euros.
Deposits of eurozone residents, including Greece, reached 2.83 billion euros against 2.77 billion euros in November 2021 and 2.49 billion euros in the last month of 2020.
The Central Bank stressed that the moratorium on the payment of loan contributions, introduced by the decree of the Minister of Finance in January 2021, had a slight additional impact on the above-mentioned changes in loans.
By the way, the suspension of installment payments concerned loans provided by monetary institutions to households and non-financial companies in the amount of 56.9 million euros. As a result of an increase in deposits and a decrease in loans, the liquidity of the financial system of Cyprus reached 21.6 billion euros.