Bank loans continue to decline. In February the annual growth rate of loans to the private sector decreased to 1,3% from 1,7% in January. This is what the Bank of Italy reports, which explains this slowdown with a "decrease in the growth rate of loans to non-financial companies (0,9% from 1,4% in January), while the growth rate of loans to households, it decreases slightly less (2,7% from 3,1%)".
More interest rates on new loans granted to companies are also slowing down to 3,8% in February from 4,06% in January. This decrease is led by interest rates on loans for amounts exceeding one million euro (which fall to 3,09% from 3,47% in the previous month), for interest rates on loans for smaller amounts the drop is smaller (4,96. 5,01% from XNUMX% in January).
On the other hand, the interest rates on mortgages for the purchase of houses are increasing disbursed to households: they rose to 4,61% from 4,55% in the previous month, while those on new consumer credit disbursements increased to 10,10% from 9,91% in January.
Furthermore, according to the Bank of Italy the Twelve-month rate on bank bad debts continues to slow down, it actually decreased to 16,6% compared to 17,9% the previous month.
The collection is positive again. In February, the annual growth rate of private sector deposits was 0,5%, up from the negative value (-0,7%) recorded in January. While over the twelve months, the growth rate of bond funding rose to 17,7% from 16,4% in the previous month.
