NBS: Dinarisation degree up by 1.5 percent

BELGRADE - The degree of dinarisation has gone up by 1.5 percentage points in the first half o 2014, which is mostly thanks to subsidised dinar loans from banks to companies, the National Bank of Serbia said on Wednesday.

Accorind to a six-month report on monetary policy from the NBS, the dinarisation in late 2013 was 26.8 percent and in late June it was 28.3 percent.

The increase in dinarisation in 2014 came mostly as the result of dinar loans, especially subsidised loans to companies, the NBS stated.

The loans to companies in foreign currency dropped, according to the NBS webiste.

The population continued to take out dinar loans, mostly cash loans, while the debt among the population in terms of foreign currency loans remained almost the same, the central bank noted.

This raised the degree og dinarisation among companies in the first half of 2014 by 1.1 percentage points, to 21.1 percent, and by 1.6 percentage points among the population, to 39.5 percent.

If the effect of the changes to foreign currency exchange rates is excluded, the dinarisation went up from 26.8 percent at the end of 2013 to 28.6 percent in late June 2014, the report says.

The banks are still stimulated to use dinar funding sources through the resderve requirement policy, the NBS stated.

Photo Tanjug/S.Gazdic