Bank credit to domestic enterprises and households: March 2010
29/04/2010 - Press Releases
The annual growth rate of total credit expansion to domestic enterprises and households decreased to 3.5% in March 2010, from 3.9% in February 2010 and 4.2% in December 2009. Compared with February 2010, credit expansion to enterprises showed a deceleration, while credit expansion to households remained unchanged.
Credit to domestic enterprises
More specifically, the net flow of credit to domestic enterprises in March 2010 amounted to €-639 million (March 2009: €252 million) and the annual rate of credit expansion decreased to 4.3%, from 4.9% in the previous month (December 2009: 5.1%). It must be pointed out however that the net flow of credit in March 2010 has been influenced by an intra-group transaction that lead to a transitory decrease in the net flow, while in February 2010 the reverse transaction caused a transitory increase in the net flow. Without this transaction, the net flows of credit in March 2010 would have been positive (total credit plus €135 million and credit to enterprises plus €61 million).
The analysis of credit to enterprises by branch of economic activity shows that in March 2010 there was acceleration in the annual growth rate of credit extended to “Agriculture” and “Tourism”, while there was deceleration or marginal change of credit growth in all other branches of activity.
More specifically, credit expansion to “Industry” continued to depict negative annual growth rate for the seventh consecutive month (March 2010:-1.3%, February 2010:-3.0%, December 2009:-3.5%), while credit expansion to “Trade” remained positive but low (March 2010: 0.5%, February 2010: 1.6%, December 2008: 4.2%).
The annual growth rate of credit extended to “Construction” remained at the low level of the previous month (March, February 2010: 3.4%, December 2009: 2.7%) and the same development was observed in the case of credit to “Shipping” (March, February 2010: 2.3%, December 2009: 4.0%).
On the contrary, credit expansion was relatively high and well above the average in the case of “Non-Monetary Financial Institutions” (8.5%), “Tourism” (8.2%), “Electricity-Gas-Water supply” (21.2%), “Communication and Transportation services excluding Shipping” (28.7%) and “Remaining branches” (6.5%).
Credit to domestic households
The net flow of credit to households in March 2010 was positive, amounting to €74 million (March 2009: €122 million) and the annual rate of credit expansion stood at 2.7%, unchanged from the previous month (December 2009: 3.1%).
More specifically, the net flow of housing loans amounted to €155 million in March 2010 (March 2009: €199 million), while its annual growth rate remained almost unchanged at the level of the previous month (March 2010: 3.6%, February 2010: 3.5%, December 2009: 3.7%).
Consumer credit depicted a negative net flow of €105 million (March 2009: -€56 million), while the annual growth rate remained basically unchanged to 1.0% in March, from 1.1% in February 2010 (December 2009: 2.0%).
Finally, the net flow of “other loans” to households was €23 million in March 2010 (March 2009: -€22 million), and the annual rate of change accelerated to 2.1% from 0.5% in February 2009 (December 2009: -1.1%).
Bank credit to domestic enterprises and households - March 2010 - Table
Note: The statistics on credit expansion to domestic enterprises and households for the reference month of April 2010 will be published on 31 May 2010.