Deposit dollarisation measures the foreign-currency share of a specified deposit portfolio. Despite its name, it can include currencies other than the US dollar.
Household foreign-currency deposits, all customers’ foreign-currency deposits and the foreign-currency part of M3 are different measures. Their denominators are household deposits, the relevant total deposit portfolio and a monetary aggregate respectively. Their percentages should not be treated as observations of one identical series.
Suppose manat deposits are AZN 700 and foreign-currency deposits are worth AZN 300. The foreign-currency share is 300 / (700 + 300) × 100, or 30%. If manat deposits rise to AZN 900 while the foreign-currency balance stays unchanged, the share falls to 25%. No one has to sell foreign currency for that to happen.
An unchanged euro balance changes in manat value when the exchange rate moves. That can affect the share without any new deposit. Separating depositor behaviour from revaluation requires balances by currency and comparable exchange rates. An aggregate manat-valued balance cannot provide the whole explanation.
Savers can weigh the currency of future spending, returns, maturity and risk. Foreign currency may match a company’s contractual obligations; it creates a different risk profile for someone spending mainly in manat. These are possible motives, not a recommendation to move savings into any particular currency.
An increase alone does not prove panic or an imminent devaluation. Check absolute balances, currency composition, customer coverage and persistence. Compare the same FinFly Data series on matching dates. Deposit insurance and taxation must be checked separately; neither can be inferred from a currency-share statistic.
No. Growth in manat deposits can reduce the share even with an unchanged foreign-currency balance.
No. The statistic usually measures amounts of money, not numbers of depositors.
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