Abstract:
Deposit is one of the resources that commercial banks are highly motivated to get it, and the
most liquid money that is found in the treasury of a bank. As a result, the survival of every
commercial banks is highly dependent on deposit. Poor deposit growth in commercial Banks
lead to inability to disburse loans to qualifying members on demand, inability to meet operation
costs, inability to service debts etc. Therefore, managing and controlling deposit is essential
for commercial banks to be competitive and attractive. The growth of deposit in Ethiopian
private commercial banks is at its infant stage and historically been low and also their deposit
is not sufficient to meet the required credit as compared to CBE. The main objective of this
study was to empirically examine the macro-economic and bank specific determinants of
deposit growth in Ethiopian private commercial banks. A longitudinal/panel secondary dataset
was used in this study. This study covers those Ethiopian private commercial banks having
available data during the period of 2009/10-2018/19. Explanatory research design,
quantitative research approach, post positivism paradigm and OLS estimation technique were
employed to examine the effect of explanatory variables (real GDP growth, deposit rate,
exchange rate, inflation, population growth and branch expansion rate) on the dependent
variable (deposit growth). Ten private commercial banks in Ethiopia were selected
purposively. The CLRM assumptions such as heteroskedasticity, normality, multicollinearity
etc. were tested. The results from the panel multiple linear regression model revealed that real
GDP growth, deposit rate, inflation, population growth and branch expansion rate had
statistically significant and positive effect on deposit growth, in the contrary exchange rate had
positive but insignificant effect on deposit growth. Finally, the researcher recommends that
there shall be stable economic growth, stable inflation, competitive and attractive deposit
interest rate, aggressive branch expansions, and healthy population growth.