By the end of March 2022, the total deposits in Croatia amounted to HRK 364.6bn, a decrease of -0.4% MoM, but an increase of 9.5% YoY.
The Croatian National Bank (HNB) has published its monthly consolidated statement of financial positions for the monetary financial institutions. In the report, we can see that at the end of March 2022, the total deposits in Croatia amounted to HRK 364.6bn, an increase of 9.5%, but a decrease of -0.4% MoM. The decrease on an MoM basis marks the first time deposits decreased since April 2020, after the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
If we were to break down the deposits by their components, on a YoY basis, demand deposits increased by 17% and amounted to HRK 153.4bn, while saving deposits grew by 4.6% YoY and amounted to HRK 211.2bn. On an MoM basis, however, both the demand deposits and saving deposits decreased, by -0.3% and -0.5%, respectively. Breaking the saving deposits into domestic and foreign currency saving deposits, the saving deposits denominated in HRK decreased by -6.5%, after last month’s decrease of -5.6%, ending March at HRK 28.9bn. At the same time, foreign currency deposits decreased slightly (-0.4% MoM), and remained roughly unchanged YoY, at HRK 182.3bn.
This would also mean that saving deposits in HRK amounted to 13.68% of all saving deposits, a decrease of 12 bps MoM. Meanwhile, foreign currency saving deposits accounted for the remaining 86.32% of all saving deposits. The decrease in deposits denominated in HRK can be attributed to the expected switch to Euro in Croatia (which should happen in January 2022), as well as the current inflationary pressure which means people are more like to increase their savings in “stronger” foreign currencies like the USD or EUR.
Looking over to the household deposits by themselves, they grew by 8.8% YoY, but decreased by -0.5% MoM, amounting to HRK 248.6bn at the end of the month. This would also mean that 68.18% of all deposits were the household deposits, representing a -43 bps YoY, and -1 bp MoM.
Deposits breakdown (HRK bn)
