Press Releases

Interest Rates on Bank Deposits and Loans: March 2010

06/05/2010 - Press Releases

1. INTEREST RATES ON NEW EURO-DENOMINATED DEPOSITS AND LOANS

In March 2010 the average interest rates on the most important categories of new deposits and loans generally increased, except for the rate on consumer loans without a defined maturity, which decreased significantly (see Table 1).

More specifically, the average interest rate on overnight deposits from households remained basically unchanged in March 2010 at 0.43%, while the corresponding rate for non-financial corporations marginally increased by 2 basis points to 0.38%. The average interest rate on new deposits from households with an agreed maturity of up to 1 year increased significantly by a further 26 basis points to 2.61%. The average interest rate on new repos increased by 5 basis points to 0.42%.

As far as interest rates on new loans are concerned, the average interest rate on consumer loans without a defined maturity (a category which includes credit card debt, open account loans, and debit balances on current accounts) significantly decreased by 30 basis points to 13.84%. This development was partly due to technical/statistical reasons, as in March 2010 there was a securitisation of high interest bearing credit card debt which has been removed from the balance sheet and is thus not included in the calculation of average rates. The interest rate on loans without a defined maturity to non-financial corporations increased in March 2010 by 4 basis points to 5.91%. There was also a further significant increase (26 basis points) in the average interest rate on new loans to non-financial corporations at a floating rate or with an initial rate fixation period of up to one year for loans up to EUR 1 million which went up to 4.98%. The corresponding interest rate for loans above EUR 1 million also increased by 34 basis points to 3.71%. The interest rates on new housing loans recorded a smaller but significant increase. More specifically, in March 2010, housing loans at a floating rate or with an initial rate fixation period of up to 1 year increased by 13 basis points to 3.21% and loans with an initial fixation period of over 1 and up to 5 years increased by 12 basis points to 4.79%.

2. INTEREST RATES ON OUTSTANDING AMOUNTS OF EURO DEPOSITS AND LOANS

In March 2010 the interest rates on outstanding amounts of the most important categories of deposits increased, while those of the most important categories of loans showed mixed developments (see Table 2).

In particular, in March 2010, the average interest rate on deposits from households with an agreed maturity of up to 2 years remained basically unchanged at 2.49%, while the one on deposits from non-financial corporations with an agreed maturity of up to 2 years increased significantly by 34 basis points to 2.24%. The average interest rates on housing loans with over 5 years’ maturity decreased by 4 basis points to 3.86%, while the rate on long-term loans to non-financial corporations increased marginally by 2 basis points to 4.01%.

Table 1: Interest rates of new euro-denominated deposits and loans

Table 2: Average interest rates on outstanding amounts of euro deposits and loans

Note: The next press release for the interest rates concerning the data of April 2010 is going to be published on 7/6/2010