In the quarterly period up to January 2023, the statistical indicators of interest rates^[1] of credit institutions on their main sources of funds continued their upward trend started in the second half of 2022, with the exception of the average interest rate on household savings deposits which continued its years-long gradual downward trend.

As regards credit institutions’ main sources of funds from the household sector, the average of interest rates on savings deposits stood at 0.16% in January 2023, down by 0.01 percentage point from October 2022 and by 0.02 percentage points from January 2022. The averages of interest rates on time deposits in euro continued to grow from the values recorded in 2022, and in January 2023 reached 0.13% for short-term deposits and 0.16% for long-term deposits. This is an increase of 0.05 percentage points for short-term deposits and of 0.10 percentage points for long-term deposits from the values seen in January 2022.

The averages of interest rates on euro time deposits of non-financial corporations witnessed a much sharper growth relative to households, reaching 1.29% for short-term deposits and 1.27% for long-term deposits in January 2023. This is an increase of 1.00 percentage point for short-term deposits and of 0.63 percentage points for long-term deposits relative to October 2022, and a rise of 1.13 percentage points for short-term deposits and of 1.26 percentage points for long-term deposits from January 2022. Thus, the averages for long-term and short-term deposits hit their highest levels since 2017 and 2014 respectively.

Statistical indicators of interest rates of credit institutions on the most important types of loans granted to households and non-financial corporations mostly trended up from the second half of 2022, with the exception of loans in the form of transaction account overdrafts and credit card loans, which continued a years-long decline in the averages of interest rates.

As for the main categories of household loans, the highest average of interest rates in January 2023 was recorded for general-purpose and other loans in euro, which reached 5.36%, the highest level since January 2019. The lowest average of interest rates in January 2023 of 2.89% was seen in euro housing loans, which also trended up in the second half of 2022. On the other hand, the average of interest rates on loans in the form of transaction account overdrafts continued its years-long decline, standing at 5.30% in January 2023. The average of interest rates on credit card loans also continued to decrease and stood at 4.78% in the same month.

As regards the main categories of loans to non-financial corporations, the averages of interest rates on short-term and long-term loans continued their months-long upward trend in January 2023, with both of these averages reaching their highest levels since 2017. In January 2023, the averages of interest rates on short-term and long-term loans to non-financial corporations in euro were 2.84% and 3.88% respectively. This is an increase of 0.63 and 0.88 percentage points from October 2022 and of 1.92 and 1.52 percentage points from January 2022 for short-term and long-term loans respectively.

Statistical time series: Credit institutions’ interest rates

1. Statistical indicators of interest rates are calculated as weighted monthly averages of agreed (nominal) interest rates on new deposit and loan contracts between credit institutions and their clients from the household sector (citizens and non-profit organisations) and the non-financial corporate sector (corporations outside the financial sector and the government sector) in a given month. New contracts include all contracts that specify for the first time the interest rate, and all renegotiations of the terms and conditions of the existing contracts. The weights used in the calculation are contracted amounts of newly received deposits and newly granted loans, with the exception of transaction accounts and demand deposits as well as transaction account overdrafts and credit card loans, which are assumed to be contractually renewed each month, but in indefinite amounts; for this reason, the weights used are their corresponding book balances at the end of a month. Indicators that are being calculated differ according to the instrument, currency, maturity, type of interest rate, loan size and institutional sector to which deposits and loans relate. ↑