Confidence in the banking sector rises and deposits increase

Zimbabwe’s banking sector deposits increased by 7.5 percent to $4.3 billion in the nine months to September from $4 billion in January this year due to a rising confidence in the sector, latest statistics from the central bank have shown.

In its monthly economic review for September released last Friday, the Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said bank deposits were mainly driven by the services sector that contributed $1.003 billion followed by financial organisations and individuals who deposited $831 million and $676 million respectively.

Broad money supply (M3) rose from 3.5 percent in August 2015 to 4.5 percent in September or $4.47 billion to $4.6 billion.

“Annual growth in broad money was driven by increases across all deposit classes, with the exception of short-term deposits. Long term deposits registered the largest annual growth of 11.4 percent, followed by demand deposits, 4.8 percent and savings deposits, 4.5 percent,” said the RBZ.

Short-term deposits registered a decrease of 3.7 percent in September.

The report also showed that annual growth in total banking sector credit to the domestic economy increased to 19 percent in September from 18.8 percent in August.

Loans and advances accounted for 83.1 percent of the total credit to the private sector, mortgages advanced by building societies were at 12.5 percent, other investments constituted 3.8 percent among others.

The value of transactions processed through the RTGS system increased from $3.3 billion in August $3.8 billion.

“In tandem, the volume of transactions rose by 7.0 percent from 153 133 to 164 309 during the same period,” the RBZ said.

According to the central bank card-based transactions, fell from $506.6 million in August 2015, to $450.6 million in September 2015.

“The total value of mobile and internet based transactions increased from $524.8 million in August 2015, to $543.2 million in September 2015. The value of cheque transactions rose from $11.4 million in August 2015 to $12.9 million in September 2015,” said the RBZ.-The Source

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