Businesses began to eat from the ready to be able to meet their obligations, whether it is installment payments (after the end of the moratorium end of 2020), or supplier payments, or operating costs for their restart. Central Bank figures show that businesses are the first to reduce their deposit balances in recent times, in contrast to households, which did not have a drop in savings but a smaller increase. The tendency for companies to draw from stocks (those they have) to withstand the prolonged crisis from the pandemic, had formed from December 2020 and continued in January 2021. The balance of deposits in the business category was € 10.56 billion from € 10.80 billion, with the reduction reaching € 223.8 million.
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In December 2020, the decline in business deposits compared to November was € 195.8 million. In one year, the pandemic “ate” € 462 million from corporate deposits. Many households may no longer save large sums but put aside even a small amount of money each month. The balance of deposits at the end of January for households was € 29.11 billion, showing an increase of € 66.9 million compared to the previous month. In one year, household deposits increased by € 381 million, most likely due to limited consumer spending due to ongoing lockdowns and government support schemes. The balance of total deposits at the end of January was € 47.94 billion, showing a decrease of € 485 million on an annual basis.
In terms of total loans in January 2021, they recorded a net increase of € 2.8 million, compared to a net increase of € 583.7 million in December 2020. The annual rate of change reached 3.1%, compared to 2, 7% in December 2020. The balance of total loans in January 2021 reached € 31.8 billion. The difference between deposits and loans maintains liquidity at high levels, reaching € 16.12 billion.
The Central Bank notes that the installment suspension decree of the Minister of Finance, which was issued in March 2020 and concerned loans to households and businesses totaling € 10.5 billion, expired in December 2020. The new decree, issued in January 2020, 2021, concerns loans of much lower total value, resulting in the significantly lower incremental effect of installment suspension on the above loan changes.
