Household lending slowed down in 2020, with loans increasing by a mere 2.1 pct to reach 136.2 billion kuna (€18 billion), while household deposits grew by 5.7 pct to 224.5 billion kuna (€29.7 billion), according to figures released by Croatia's central bank on Monday.

The total lending, without lending to the central government, reached 232.6 billion kuna at the end of 2020, up by 9.2 billion kuna (or 4.1 pct transaction-based) on the year.

Broken down by sectors, the biggest increase of 4.9 billion kuna was observed in loans to the corporate sector, with a growth rate of 6 pct in 2020 as against 1.8 pct in 2019.

Lending to the corporate sector reached 86.3 billion kuna at the end of 2020, while lending to the household sector came to 136.2 billion kuna.

The growth of household lending thus continued to decelerate, from 7.4 pct in 2019 to 2.1 pct in 2020, or by 2.7 billion kuna. The deceleration was mostly due to a decrease in general-purpose cash loans.

On the other hand, housing loans increased by 4.3 billion kuna, accelerating on the back of a government housing loans subsidy scheme.

(€1 = 7.56 kuna)