The stock of credit granted by banks to the Romanian government surged by 23% y/y to RON 250 billion (EUR 50 billion) at the end of 2024 – three times faster than the non-government credit (loans granted to the population and companies), according to data published by the National Bank of Romania (BNR) and consulted by Cursdeguvernare.ro.

The size of government credit is important as the state "competes" with the private economy for banks' resources. In other words, the government is squeezing out other potential borrowers, through the high rates accepted and the high volume borrowers.

Only a fifth (21%) of CFOs in Romanian companies consider bank financing attractive, while a double share, namely 44% of CFOs, believe that financing through equity is attractive, and another 44% consider internal financing to be attractive, according to the Deloitte CFO Survey Romania 2025 study quoted by Ziarul Financiar.

Consequently, Romanian companies remained net creditors to banks at the end of 2024, with RON 20 billion (EUR 4 billion) of deposits in excess of the stock of corporate loans. 

Thus, the state becomes an increasingly attractive client for the banking system - because the costs associated with an institutional client are lower (than those associated with retail clients, for example), and this institutional client pays increasingly higher interest rates due to the record budget deficits in recent years that have led to the explosion of financing needs.

As a result of the unprecedented growth in government credit in the last decade, its share in total bank loans rose to a record level of 37.2% in 2024.

iulian@romania-insider.com

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