The trend of decreasing kuna savings and time deposits at banks in Croatia continued at the beginning of this year, as at the end of February, kuna deposits were 2.8 billion kuna lower than at the end of last year, while the continuous growth of foreign currency deposits persisted, which increased by 1.6 billion kuna in the first two months of this year.
The decrease in kuna deposits in the first months of this year was primarily influenced by the decline in corporate deposits, which amounted to 3.2 billion kuna in the first two months. The increase in foreign currency deposits was mainly attributed to the household sector, which accounted for more than two-thirds of the increase, according to data from the Croatian National Bank. A slight decline was also recorded in kuna deposits of other financial institutions, while households increased their kuna deposits at banks by 391 million kuna to 19.6 billion kuna in the first two months of this year compared to the end of 2009. However, on an annual basis, compared to February 2009, household savings and time kuna deposits at banks are lower by 4.5 billion kuna or 18.9 percent. The continuation of the reduction in total kuna non-monetary deposits resulted in an acceleration of their decline on an annual basis, which reached 26.6 percent at the end of February.
