During the pandemic, our savings grew

The savings of the population in Serbia last year, marked by the coronavirus pandemic, increased in many countries, including Serbia, the Politika daily reports.

According to the National Bank of Serbia (NBS), dinar savings reached RSD 93 billion at the end of 2020 and compared to the same period in 2019 it was higher by RSD 13.4 billion, i.e. 16.9 percent.

Foreign currency savings amounted to EUR 11.433 billion at the end of 2020, and increased by EUR 629.2 million, i.e. 5.8 percent in a year.

„In the previous year, dinar savings had a dynamic growth and that is its highest level so far. Looking at trends, both short-term and long-term, both dinar and foreign currency savings are growing, which shows citizens’ trust in the domestic banking sector,“ the NBS told the Politika daily.

The largest number of deposits in banks amount to up to RSD 10,000 (86.6 percent of the total number of deposits), although they participate with only 0.7 percent in total dinar savings, while the largest part of dinar savings refer to deposits between one and five million dinars ( 39.5 percent).

Deposits worth more than five million dinars are numerically represented to a modest extent (2,703 i.e. 0.3 percent), but they make up almost a third of the value of total dinar savings. The number of these deposits increased by 456 in the past year.

In the case of foreign currency savings, the largest number of deposits is in the category of deposits up to EUR 500 (80 percent of the total number of deposits), but by value they participate with only 0.9 percent in total foreign currency savings.

The largest part of foreign currency savings is in the categories whose value ranges from EUR 10,000 to 50,000 – 46.7 percent of total foreign currency savings (EUR 5.268 billion), but the share of these deposits in the total number of savings is relatively low – 5.1 percent.

At the end of November 2020, deposits with a value of more than EUR 100,000 accounted for 17.5 percent of the total foreign currency savings (EUR 1.971 billion), and there were 8,736 deposits in this category, which is 0.2 percent of the total number of savings.

„For years, more and more savings clients have opted for dinar savings, so it records continuous and extremely dynamic growth. Dinar savings currently amount to RSD 93 billion, which is more than five times higher than at the end of 2012,“ the central bank said.

Izvor: Beta, Politika

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