Commentary on monetary developments statistics

March 2026

Commentary on the main indicators

Compared to the previous month, the annual rate of growth of M3 recorded a modest decline in March 2026 and reached 5.2%, representing a month-on-month decrease of 0.3 percentage point. As a result of financial transactions, M3 also decreased month on month, by CZK 13.5 billion (an increase of CZK 366.0 billion year on year), amounting to CZK 7,442.6 billion.

Individual components of the annual rate of growth of M3 showed mixed developments in March. The contribution of currency in circulation increased marginally (from 0.2 percentage point in February to 0.3 percentage point in March), as did the contribution of overnight deposits (from 4.6 percentage points in February to 4.9 percentage points in March). By contrast, the contribution of short-term deposits decreased and remained negative (from −0.2 percentage point in February to −0.6 percentage point in March). The contribution of marketable instruments also decreased slightly (from 0.8 percentage point in February to 0.6 percentage point in March).

Chart 1 – Contributions to annual M3 growth (%)
Contributions to annual M3 growth (%)

Source: ARAD data series system

The annual growth rate of loans to the private sector, which are the most important counterpart of M3, decreased slightly by 0.1 percentage point to 8.9% in March compared with the previous month. As a result of financial transactions, the volume of these loans rose by CZK 38.4 billion month on month (an increase of CZK 376.9 billion year on year), with the total amounting to CZK 4,590.0 billion. The annual growth rate of loans to non-financial corporations, a major component of this indicator, decreased by 0.7 percentage point month on month to 7.5%. The second key component consists of loans to households, whose year-on-year growth rate has been rising slightly since May 2024; in March it also increased compared with February, by 0.4 percentage point to 9.6% (for comparison, it was 4.1% in April 2024).

Chart 2 – Contributions to annual growth in loans to private sector (%)
Contributions to annual growth in loans to private sector (%)

Source: ARAD data series system

Note:

  • Monetary aggregates comprise the monetary liabilities of monetary financial institutions to non-MFI Czech residents except central government. The narrow monetary aggregate M1 includes currency in circulation (excluding cash at banks’ cash desks) and overnight deposits. The intermediate monetary aggregate M2 comprises M1, deposits redeemable at notice of up to three months and deposits with a maturity of up to two years. The broad monetary aggregate M3 comprises M2, money market fund shares/units, debt securities with a maturity of up to two years and repurchase agreements.
  • The private sector comprises all resident institutional sectors except general government (S.13) and monetary financial institutions (S.121, S.122 and S.123 under ESA 2010).