Banca Naţională a României

At end-June, broad money (M2) came in at ROL 208,498 billion, up 4.3 percent in nominal terms and 2.7 percent in real terms, month on month. Solely net foreign assets were accountable for the increase in broad money.

Net foreign assets grew 14.9 percent to ROL 129,295 billion, due mainly to a new issue of Eurobonds worth EUR 600 million launched by the Ministry of Public Finance. Net domestic assets edged down 9.3 percent, amounting to ROL 79,203 billion, while the domestic credit decreased by 6.7 percent to ROL 114,474 billion and other net domestic assets remained broadly unchanged.

The 33.2 percent decline in government credit, net, to ROL 21,589 billion was due to the growth of foreign-exchange liquidities held by the Ministry of Public Finance. Non-government credit continued to post an upward trend, rising by 2.8 percent to ROL 92,885 billion, on the back of rises on its ROL-denominated and foreign-exchange-denominated components, by 2.9 percent and 2.7 percent respectively.

Narrow money (M1) picked up 10.2 percent to ROL 46,001 billion, due mainly to the 16.5 rise in currency outside banks to ROL 29,645 billion. This development was induced mainly by the payment of holiday entitlements to teachers and the quarterly indexation of pensions and public sector wages. Quasi-money moved up 2.8 percent to ROL 162,497 billion. Household savings swelled by 3.3 percent, reaching ROL 52,348 billion, against the background of government securities issued by the Ministry of Public Finance continuing to compete with bank deposits. Thus, the value of household government securities moved up 5.2 percent to ROL 14,167 billion. Corporate deposits in ROL picked up 3.8 percent to ROL 20,218 billion. Residents' forex deposits expressed in lei, rose 2.3 percent to ROL 89,931 billion, on the back of the increase in foreign-exchange household deposits and of the domestic currency depreciation.