Macro roundup: Credit expansion quickens
Greek private sector deposits grow in April; bank lending to business also increases
Programming Note: The weekly Friday macroeconomic roundup will go on a temporary hiatus after today’s newsletter. It will be back, but I won’t give a definite date right now for when. I will continue to publish other macroeconomic pieces that aren’t always tied to the week’s releases.
After a few months of declines, household and business deposits rose again in April, increasing 1.35 billion euros to 178 billion euros, according to Bank of Greece data. They had dropped in the previous three months.
Meanwhile, bank lending to non-financial businesses grew an annual 6.1 percent in April — its highest level since last June — compared with 3.3 percent in March. Lending to the private sector as a whole increased 2.8 percent, up from 1.6 percent the month before.
Other data
The central government’s primary budget deficit for the first four months of the year was 799 million euros, compared with deficits of 6.2 billions euros in the same period of 2021 and 2.45 billion euros estimated in the 2022 budget.
While expenditure came in 958 million euros less than budgeted for January to April, the biggest driver for the budget outperformance was tax revenue coming in 1.75 billion euros higher than the budget plan.
Building activity in Greece, as measured by the number of building permits issued, rose 13.7 percent in February compared with a year earlier. Surface area increased 16.8 percent, while volume was up 29.2 percent.
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Next week’s key releases
Monday, May 30:
May economic sentiment indicator (European Commission)
April producer price index (Elstat)
Tuesday, May 31:
March retail sales (Elstat)
Wednesday, June 1:
May manufacturing purchasing managers’ index (S&P Global)
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