Central Bank presented on Thursday, April 29 a report on the status of loans and deposits in the banking system of Cyprus for March 2021.
According to the Central Bank, the number of deposits in local banks increased in the first spring month of 2021, while loan numbers decreased.
Deposits
The volume of deposits in the Cypriot banking system registered a net increase of €270.2 million in March 2021, compared to a net decrease of €92.4 million in February 2021.
The annual growth rate was 1.7%, up from 0.2% in February 2021. The balance of deposits in March 2021 reached €48.4 billion.
At the same time, deposits of Cypriot depositors in March 2021 increased to €39.62 billion from €39.38 billion in February, and deposits of residents of the eurozone to €2.48 billion from €2.47 billion, respectively. Deposits of third-country nationals also showed an increase in March to €6.3 billion from €6 billion in February.
Loans
The total volume of new loans in March 2021 recorded a net decrease of €19.9 million, compared with a net decrease of €288 million in February 2021. The annual growth rate was 1.9%, up from 2.1% in February 2021.
The total loan balance in March 2021 reached €31.6 billion. In turn, consumer loans in March rose by 1% compared with an increase of 1.2% in February, the growth in the residential sector was 5% (4.8% in the last month), and in the business sector was 3.3% (3% last month).
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 changes in loans.
By the way, the suspension of installment payments related to loans provided by monetary institutions to households and non-financial companies in the amount of 56.3 million euros.