The consolidated balance sheet of commercial banks jumped by 3.96% year-to-date (y-t-d) to $171.34B by September, equivalent to a 7.59% year-on-year (y-o-y) growth. Total reserves showed a 11.90% y-t-d increase to form 35.75% of total assets, with a value of $61.26B. 99.31% of these reserves are held in the form of deposits with the Central Bank. Claims on the resident private sector, with a share of 25.81% of total assets, posted a 6.56% y-t-d increase to $44.23B. The dollarization rate of the private sector demonstrated a slight decrease from 76.54% in December to 75.87% by September. During this period, foreign currency loans advanced by 4.49% y-t-d to $37.90B, and were outpaced by local currency loans which displayed a y-t-d increase of 8.42%. Meanwhile, claims on the public sector, which mainly take the form of treasury bills and Eurobonds, recorded a 0.33% y-t-d decrease to $37.54B. In details, the stock of T-bills fell by 0.37% to $37.44B, as outstanding Eurobonds posted a 3.98% y-t-d drop that offset the 4.41% y-t-d increase in T-bills denominated in local currencies. As for liabilities, resident private sector deposits grew by 4.45% to close at $112.52B. The bulk of these deposits are denominated in foreign currencies, which increased by 4.10% y-t-d to $67.62B, while deposits in local currency grew by 4.98% y-t-d to $44.87B. Non-resident private sector deposits, which increased by 3.60% y-t-d to $29.51B, also witnessed deposits in local currency outgrowing deposits in foreign currencies, with respective y-t-d growths of 11.73% and 2.52% to $3.75B and $25.75B. These changes resulted in the decrease of the dollarization rate of private sector deposits from 66.13% to 65.75% by September 2014.