Serbia’s financial system is seeing a larger share of lending, deposits and savings denominated in dinars, reducing the role of foreign-currency funding while the euro remains an important part of corporate finance.
Dinar Share of Lending and Deposits Rises
The dinar share of total loans to companies and households reached 40.5% in July 2026, an increase of 12.5 percentage points from the end of 2012. The share of deposits held in dinars rose to 45.6%. The shift has been particularly pronounced among businesses. Dinar-denominated funds represented 60.1% of corporate deposits, indicating a growing use of the domestic currency for working capital and liquidity. Dinar savings also reached a record RSD 246.6 billion, after rising by RSD 40.4 billion during the first eight months of the year.
Household Borrowing Moves Further Toward the Dinar
Household lending has recorded a substantial increase in the use of the domestic currency. The dinarisation ratio for household loans reached 56.9% in July, compared with 35.1% in 2012. The broader increase in dinar deposits provides banks with a larger domestic-currency funding base for local-currency lending, reducing the need to assume the same degree of currency mismatch.
Euro Financing Remains Important for Companies
The growing use of the dinar does not remove the euro from Serbia’s financial system. Euro and euro-indexed lending continues to play an important role in corporate financing, particularly for investment projects, real estate and businesses whose revenues are linked to the European currency. Serbia’s trade structure, foreign investment base and exchange-rate policy also maintain a strong role for the euro in economic activity. Companies connected to EU supply chains continue to conduct significant operations in euros. The increase in dinar use nevertheless reduces the exposure of borrowers earning dinar revenues to exchange-rate movements associated with foreign-currency borrowing.
Monetary Policy and Domestic-Currency Financing
Higher dinarisation also affects the transmission of domestic monetary policy. During periods of high euroisation, changes in the National Bank of Serbia’s dinar interest rate affected only part of the outstanding stock of loans and deposits. The shift toward the domestic currency has been supported by relatively stable inflation, a broadly stable dinar-euro exchange rate and regulatory measures aimed at making local-currency financing more attractive.
The development also complements efforts to deepen Serbia’s domestic bond market and increase the proportion of government debt issued in local currency. The resulting financial structure increasingly includes the dinar across payments, salaries, savings, corporate liquidity and longer-term financing, while the euro continues to retain a significant role in trade, investment and corporate funding.
