NICOSIA – The flow of deposits in the domestic banking system recorded in August a slight increase, according to data released by the Central Bank of Cyprus. The Bank announced on Thursday that deposits in domestic financial institutions recorded an increas of 0.5% in August on an annual basis or 837.9 million euro, reaching 70.66 billion euro compared to 69.82 billion in August of 2011.

Deposits increased by 99.4 million euro in August compared to the previous month. The increase of deposits in August in relation to the previous month is due to a slight increase in the inflow of deposits coming from third country residents, which were up by 335.7 million euro.

On the other hand, the small annual increase recorded is mainly due to a 1.5% increase of deposits from euro zone residents. This slight recovery of deposits comes after three consecutive drops of the order of 1.9%, 1.1% and 1.2% in deposits in the months of June, July and March respectively.

General government deposits dropped in August by 27,4% on annual basis to 492.2 million euro, whilst insurance and pension funds deposits increased by 20.3% standing at the end of August at 4.58 million euro. Domestic household deposits went up by 2.0% to 26.05 billion euro. At the same time, loans by Cyprus financial institutions also increased in August by 7.2 billion euro or 10.5% reaching 73.5 billion euro from 66.2 billion euro at the same month of the previous year.

Third country resident’s deposits were up on an annual basis to 20.98 billion euro from 20.85 billion euro in August 2011. Domestic residents deposits were down in August to 44.25 billion euro from 45.87 billion euro in August 2011. In July 2012, residents’ deposits reached 43.58 billion euro. Loans to Cyprus residents came up to 53.15 billion euro in August 2012 from 51.92 billion euro last year.

Loans to third country residents reached 15.46 billion euro up from 10.92 billion euro last year and 15.07 billion euro in July 2012. Euro zone residents’ loans stood in August 2012 at 4.89 billion euro, up from 3.41 billion euro on an annual basis but slightly down from 4.92 billion euro in July 2012.

In addition, Central Bank data show that consumer loans came to 3.49 billion euro in August 2012 slightly up from 3.43 billion euro at the same month of the previous year. The total housing loans came to 15.06 billion euro up from 14.88 billion euro in August 2012, marking a slight increase of 0.8%.