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Lending rates keep falling

02/09/2015 13:11
Lending rates are on a downward trend since March 2015 in Cyprus supporting prospects for the recovery of the economy.

After the intervention of the Central Bank to reduce deposit rates on 16 February 2015, lending rates started to decline although they remain at the top among eurozone countries.

According to new data released today by the European Central Bank, the average rate on new business loans in Cyprus declined to 5.10% in July 2015 from 5.15% in June and 6% in July 2014.

Since February 2015 business loan rates have decreased by 69 percentage points.

Despite the decrease, they are still the highest in the eurozone.

In eurozone, the interest rate on business loans fell to 2.76% from 2.81% in June.

In Greece, the business loan interest rate amounts to 4.87% and in Malta it stands at 4.02%.

As for new housing loans, interest rates in Cyprus have decreased in the seventh month of the year to 3.90% from 4.04% in June 2015 and 4.78% in July 2014.

These are the highest rates among all euro area countries. Since February, however, a decrease of 115 percentage points has been recorded.

In eurozone, the housing loan rate rose to 2.56% from 2.48% in the previous month.

In Greece housing loan rates fell to 3.16% from 3.28% in the previous month.

As regards interest rates on new deposits in Cyprus, they remained stable in July 2015 at 1.66%, as in June. In July 2014 the deposit rate stood at 2.62%.

The decrease recorded since February amounts to 64 percentage points.

In eurozone, the deposit rate fell to 0.68% from 0.80%.

The lowest deposit rates are recorded in Lithuania (0.15%) and Latvia (0.20%).