The flow of bank loans to households and businesses increased in August, but interest rates also continued to rise. This is revealed by the data released by Bankitalia on the Italian banking system. Mortgages have shown an increase in the average rate which rises to 3,70% from 3,51% in July, while compared to August 2010 the increase is close to one percentage point. Interest rates on loans of more than one million euros to financial companies have risen to 3% from 2,98% in July. As regards consumer credit, the average rate reaches 9,23% from 9,11% in the previous month.
In terms of the disbursement of loans to the private sector, +4,2% was recorded in August on the previous month compared to +4,3% in July. Small drop, from 4,7% to 4,6%, for the growth of loans to households while that of loans to non-financial companies remains at 4,9%.
Giovanni Sabatini, general manager of ABI, spoke today about the relationship between the banking system and business credit during his speech during Credit Day. “So far we have found a good harmony with Confindustria and solutions to reduce the impact on the amount of credit disbursed to the economy, but obviously if this spread persists it may not continue. In any case, the problem of growth – he concluded – is what puts us on the same barricade as businesses”.
