In August, banks’ loan portfolio in the domestic currency increased by 2.3% to UAH 607.8 billion. This is according to preliminary Monetary Statistics data for August 2018.
As in previous months, banks conducted active operations with households – hryvnia household loans increased by 4% to UAH 126.2 billion.
In August, hryvnia corporate loans rose by 1.8%, to UAH 480.3 billion, while FX corporate loans remained nearly unchanged at USD 14.5 billion.
Hryvnia deposits in Ukraine’s banking system dropped by 4.1% in August to UAH 494.5 billion. Hryvnia corporate funds in accounts of solvent banks went down by 6.7% to UAH 242.3 billion, primarily due to quarterly taxes and other payments to the budget. Hryvnia household funds in accounts of solvent banks decreased by 1.3% to UAH 251.5 billion due to seasonal factors and worsened exchange rate expectations.
Amid the increased volatility in the FX market and the depreciation pressure on the hryvnia, FX corporate and household deposits rose by 2.1% to USD 5.2 billion, and by 2.2% to USD 8.7 billion, respectively.
The cost of hryvnia loans and deposits increased slightly for business and remained virtually the same, in monthly terms, for households.
Interest rates on hryvnia corporate deposits saw an increase of 0.4 pp, to 12.4%, while those on hryvnia corporate loans decreased by 1 pp, to 17.9% p.a.
Interest rates on hryvnia household deposits remained at the same level as in July, while interest rates on hryvnia household loans went down by 0.2 pp.
For more on the main trends of the monetary market in August 2018, see the September 2018 Macroeconomic and Monetary Review, coming out later this month.