Citizens need cash loans the most, out of all the new loans taken out by citizens in banks. Of the newly approved loans to households in the third quarter, which amounted to EUR 1.1 billion, cash loans accounted for almost two thirds, according to data from the National Bank of Serbia (NBS).
The share of housing loans was 15.5 percent of new loans to households, which is lower than in the third quarter of last year, when they accounted for 23.3 percent of new loans on average. Housing loans have decreased due to increased real estate prices and borrowing costs, according to the Central Bank Report.
The tightening of the monetary policy of the National Bank of Serbia and the European Central Bank, in response to inflationary pressures, continues to be transmitted to the price of loans to households, which, like the economy, is growing at a slower pace than before, according to the NBS Trends in Credit Activity Report for the third quarter of this year.
The average interest rate on newly approved dinar loans to households in the third quarter reached an average of 13.4 percent. At the same time, the average interest rate on the most common cash loans increased by 0.1 percentage point to 14.2 percent, and the rate on other uncategorized loans by 0.2 percentage points to 11.3 percent.
The weighted average interest rate for citizens on newly approved loans indexed in euros increased on average in the third quarter by 0.1 percentage point to 7.3 percent. Of that, interest rates on housing loans (to 6.6 percent) and consumer loans (to 6.4 percent) were increased by 0.1 percentage points each.
Before the ECB started the cycle of interest rate increases, compared to June 2022 and ending in September 2023, the average rate on new household loans in the euro sign was higher by 3.5 percentage points.
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