According to information released Thursday by the Bank of Portugal (BdP), the average interest rate on new home loans rose from 3.74% in April to 3.71% in May, falling for the eighth month in a row. At the same time, banks also cut interest rates on term deposits, which fell from 2.75% in April to 2.72% in May.
The volume of new term deposit transactions in May amounted to 10.6 billion euros, 39 million euros less than in the previous month, the BdP reported.
In the same information, the institution specifies that “similar to what happened in April, the high volume of new deposit transactions was largely due to the reuse in new term deposits of amounts previously invested in deposits of this type, without automatic renewal, that had reached maturity.” Deposits with a term of up to one year accounted for 96% of new deposits in May.
As for housing loans, the average interest rate on new housing loan contracts fell by 0.02 percentage points to 3.61%. In revised contracts, the average interest rate increased by 0.02 percentage points to 4.06%, the BdP further explains.
The average interest rate on new home loan operations in all eurozone countries remained unchanged (3.76%), the institution reported, while recalling that Portugal has the seventh highest average minimum interest rate, below the eurozone average.
Author: Raquel Oliveira
Source: CM Jornal
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