The Central Bank of Cyprus published a new report on loans and deposits in the country's banking system for February 2021, and compared these indicators with those in January.
According to the Central Bank data, Cypriots are less willing to entrust their money to banks, but take on debt for consumer needs and the purchase of housing without excessive fears.
Deposits
Total deposits in February 2021 showed a net decrease of EUR 92.4 million compared with a net decrease of EUR 349.3 million in January 2021.
The annual growth rate was 0.2%, and the balance of deposits in February 2021 reached EUR 47.9 billion.
Deposits of Cypriots fell to EUR 39.38 billion from EUR 39.49 billion in January, and deposits of residents of the eurozone fell to EUR 2.47 billion from EUR 2.48 billion. Deposits of third-country nationals increased to EUR 6 billion from EUR 5.97 billion.
Loans
The total volume of new loans in February 2021 recorded a decrease to EUR 288 million, compared with a net increase of EUR 2.8 million in January 2021.
The annual growth rate in the second month of the new year was 2.1%, up from 3.1% in January 2021. The total volume of loans in February 2021 reached EUR 31.5 billion.
Consumer loans increased by 1.2% compared to 0.4% in January, the volume of housing loans remained at 4.8%, and the volume of business loans fell to 3% from 3.1% in the previous month.
The Central Bank noted that the moratorium on the payment of loan contributions, introduced by the decree of the Minister of Finance in January 2021, influenced these changes.