Euro area bank interest rate statistics: December 2018

• The composite cost-of-borrowing indicators for new loans to corporations^[1] and for new loans to households for house purchase^[2] remained broadly unchanged in December 2018, at 1.64% and 1.80%, respectively.
• In the same month, the euro area composite interest rate for new deposits from corporations stayed constant at 0.10%, while the one for new deposits from households remained broadly unchanged at 0.35%.

Bank interest rates for corporations

Data for cost of borrowing and deposit interest rate for corporations

The composite cost-of-borrowing indicator, which combines interest rates on all loans to corporations, remained broadly unchanged in December 2018. The interest rate on new loans of over €1 million with a floating rate and an initial rate fixation period of up to three months remained broadly unchanged at 1.22%, while the rate for new loans of the same size with an initial rate fixation period of over ten years showed no change at 1.79%. In the case of new loans of up to €250,000 with a floating rate and an initial rate fixation period of up to three months, the average rate charged showed no change at 2.20%.

As regards new deposit agreements, the interest rate on deposits from corporations with an agreed maturity of up to one year stayed constant at 0.06% in December 2018.

The interest rate on new loans to sole proprietors and unincorporated partnerships with a floating rate and an initial rate fixation period of up to one year decreased by 6 basis points to 2.31%.This decrease was driven by the weight effect.

Data for bank interest rates for corporations

Bank interest rates for households

Data for cost of borrowing and deposit interest rate for households

The composite cost-of-borrowing indicator, which combines interest rates on all loans to households for house purchase, remained broadly unchanged in December 2018. The interest rate on loans for house purchase with a floating rate and an initial rate fixation period of up to one year showed no change at 1.61%, while the interest rate on housing loans with an initial rate fixation period of over ten years fell by 4 basis points to 1.84%. In the same period, the interest rate on new loans to households for consumption with a floating rate and an initial rate fixation period of up to one year remained broadly unchanged at 4.92%.

As regards new deposits from households, the interest rate on deposits with an agreed maturity of up to one year and on deposits redeemable at three months' notice remained broadly unchanged in December 2018, at 0.31% and 0.43%, respectively.

Data for bank interest rates for households

Further information

Tables containing further breakdowns of bank interest rate statistics, including the composite cost-of-borrowing indicators for all euro area countries, are available from the ECB's Statistical Data Warehouse. A subset is visually presented in "Our statistics" at www.euro-area-statistics.org. The full set of bank interest rate statistics for both the euro area and individual countries can be downloaded from SDW. More information, including the release calendar, is available under "Bank interest rates" in the statistics section of the ECB's website.

For media queries, please contact Alexandrine Bouilhet, tel.: +49 69 1344 8949.

Notes:

• The composite cost-of-borrowing indicators are described in the article entitled "Assessing the retail bank interest rate pass-through in the euro area at times of financial fragmentation" in the August 2013 issue of the ECB's Monthly Bulletin (see Box 1).
• Interest rates on new business are weighted by the size of the individual agreements. This is done both by the reporting agents and when the national and euro area averages are computed. Thus changes in average euro area interest rates for new business reflect, in addition to changes in interest rates, changes in the weights of individual countries' new business for the instrument categories concerned. The "interest rate effect" and the "weight effect" presented in this press release are derived from the Bennet index, which allows month-on-month developments in euro area aggregate rates resulting from changes in individual country rates (the "interest rate effect") to be disentangled from those caused by changes in the weights of individual countries' contributions (the "weight effect"). Owing to rounding, the combined "interest rate effect" and the "weight effect" may not add up to the month-on-month developments in euro area aggregate rates.
• In addition to monthly euro area bank interest rate statistics for December 2018, this press release incorporates revisions to data for previous periods. Hyperlinks in the main body of the press release lead to data that may change with subsequent releases as a result of revisions. Unless otherwise indicated, these euro area statistics cover the EU Member States that had adopted the euro at the time to which the data relate.
• As of reference period December 2014, the sector classification applied to bank interest rates statistics is based on the European System of Accounts 2010 (ESA 2010). In accordance with the ESA 2010 classification and as opposed to ESA 95, the non-financial corporations sector (S.11) now excludes holding companies not engaged in management and similar captive financial institutions.