The National Bank of Macedonia released the April 2026 data - and the picture is complex. Total loans in the banking system reached 576 billion denars (9.36 billion euros), with a 1 percent monthly increase and a 13.3 percent annual increase. The corporate sector is the main driver of this credit expansion, but households are taking a serious share too.

Deposits fell by 1.4 percent month-on-month but climbed 9.3 percent year-on-year, for a total of 656.87 billion denars (10.68 billion euros). Household deposits - the largest component at 7.34 billion euros - posted 1.6 percent monthly growth and 10.5 percent yearly growth, mostly through denar savings and term deposits.

Corporate deposits fell 9.1 percent in April but kept a 6 percent annual increase. Housing loans are the fastest grower - 16.2 percent year-on-year. Consumer loans grew 11.2 percent. Car loans - 4.9 percent. Credit cards in the red - minus 4.6 percent. The M3 money supply hit 10.36 billion euros, with 9.4 percent annual growth.

The picture taking shape is one many economists expect - people are saving, while simultaneously taking out loans for concrete life decisions (a flat, a car), and cutting back on plastic spending. That can be healthy behaviour at the individual level, but at the macro level it raises the question - does the surge in housing loans actually reflect a rise in living standards, or is it just rising property prices forcing people to borrow more?

For a Balkan audience, 13.3 percent annual credit growth is striking. In developed economies that figure would set off overheating alarms. The question that economists outside the National Bank should be asking is whether this is the sign of a healthy economic swing, or a fresh credit bubble that will pop in two or three years.