Continues drop in rates applied by banks on new home mortgages. In February, the Abi reports in its usual monthly report, the average rate on new transactions for the purchase of homes decreased to 3.90%, compared to 3.98% in January 2024 and 4.42% in December 2023. Also the average rate on new business financing operations fell to 5.37% from 5.48% in January and from 5.45% in December 2023 while the average rate on total loans (therefore subscribed over the years) was by 4.78%, as in the previous month.
In February, however, loans to businesses and families fell by 2.7% compared to a year earlier, while in January 2024 they had recorded a decrease of 2.6%, when the former had decreased by 4% and the latter by 1.3%. According to the Abi “the decline in credit volumes is consistent with the slowdown in economic growth which contributes to depressing the demand for loans”.
The net suffering, i.e. net of devaluations and provisions already made by the banks with their own resources, in January they were 17.5 billion euros, compared to 16.7 billion in December 2023. The Abi underlines that if compared with the maximum level of net bad debts, reached in November 2015 (88.8 billion), the decrease is 71.3 billion. The ratio of net bad debts to total loans was 1.04% in January (0.98% in December 2023; 4.89% in November 2015).
The net bad debts in January, he explained when presenting the report Gianfranco Torriero, deputy general director of the Abi, “they were 17.5 billion compared to 16.7 billion in December 2023, however this is not an increase in risk but a change in the Bank of Italy’s survey methods. The increase in bad debts – he observed – is a statistical effect of this change, while net of this effect the values remain stable”.