Total deposits held by commercial banks in Croatia reached 271.1 billion kuna (€36.7 billion) at the end of March, a decrease by 862 million or 0.3 percent compared to February 2018, Raiffeisenbank Austria (RBA) analysts said in a report on Monday.

Compared with March 2017, total deposits rose by 12.8 billion kuna, or by 5 percent, according to data released by the central bank. RBA analysts said this is the biggest year-on-year growth recorded since August 2016, and a continuation of positive growth rates since December 2011.

They said the year-on-year growth is largely thanks to strong increase in demand deposits, while savings and time deposits fell in March compared to March 2017.

At the end of March 2018, demand deposits totalled 76.1 billion kuna (€10.3 billion), up by 1.4 billion kuna or 1.9 percent more than in February 2018, and 16.6 billion kuna or 27.8 percent up from March 2017.

Total savings and time deposits, denominated in both domestic and foreign currencies, fell for the 18th month in a row. They amounted to 195 billion (€26.4 billion), having dropped year-on-year by 3.7 billion or 1.9 percent from March 2017.

(€1 = 7.38 kuna)

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