Hungarian households again borrowed more than they repaid in forints and repayed more than they borrowed in foreign currencies in July, a pattern unbroken since late spring of 2009, data from the National Bank of Hungary published on Tuesday showed. Excluding exchange-rate and seasonal effects, households have been net borrowers each month since last September except for January.
Households took out net HUF 27.9bn of new forint loans in July, increasing their total debt on forint loans to HUF 2,735bn, while they repaid a net HUF 41.3bn on foreign-currency-denominated loans, which, including another HUF 183bn decline in revaluation (mostly exchange rate) changes, decreased the outstanding stock of such loans to HUF 5,712bn.
Transactions cut the household loan stock by a combined HUF 13.3pc in July, and, including exchange-rate and other effects, the overall debt of households to Hungary-based banks on loans fell HUF 201bn to HUF 8,447bn at the end of the month. In June the stock rose a sharp 585bn, mainly due to the weakening of the forint.
Seasonally and exchange-rate adjusted figures show net forint-borrowing transactions of HUF 45.9bn and net forex repayment of HUF 26.3bn in July.
Transactions reduced households’ overall deposits again, this time by HUF 37.2bn as households withdrew HUF 13.8bn from forint deposits in July (after placing net HUF 63.4bn in June) and withdrew HUF 23.4bn from foreign-currency deposits after withdrawing HUF 76.9bn worth in June. The overall stock fell HUF 57bn in July to HUF 7,253bn due to the weaker forint after a HUF 41.4bn rise in June. Forint deposits fell to HUF 6,078bn and foreign-currency deposits, including a HUF 19.6bn revaluation effect, fell to HUF 1,175bn.
Based on seasonally and exchange-rate adjusted figures, households placed HUF 8.5bn more in forint deposits than they withdrew in July and withdrew net HUF 46.7bn worth from their foreign-currency deposits.