Interest rate on new loans in Moldovan lei returns to level recorded five months ago in Moldova

Chisinau, 20 September /MOLDPRES/ - The interest rate on new loans in Moldovan in last August lei increased to 8.13 per cent – a figure comparable to the value registered in March 2019. The credits became relatively more expensive, after the National Bank of Moldova (BNM) had increased the basic rate to 7.5 per cent.    

The increase of interest rate in August 2019 led to a decrease in the demand for bank credits, which dropped to the lowest level in the last months. Legal entities and private people in last August contracted from banks loans worth 1.8 billion lei, against two billion in the month before, when the interest rate decreased to the historical minimal level of 8 per cent.  

BNM’s data make public today shows that economic agents and residents borrowed bank loans amounting to more than 15 billion lei in the first eight months of this year. The most demanded credits were the ones provided for terms from 2 to 5 years, which account for almost a half of the credits in the national currency.     

According to the National Bank, the loans in the Moldovan lei were represented, preponderantly, by financings provided to private people, which reached 957 million lei.  

Private people were provided loans in Moldovan lei with an average interest rate of 7.7 per cent and legal entities – with an interest rate of 8.61 per cent. Private persons borrowed credits for real estate at an average rate of 6.86 per cent, against 6.75 per cent in last July. Bank statistics shows that, in August this year, residents borrowed from banks loans for real estate amounting to 286 million lei. BNM’s data also shows that consumer loans, standing at 601 million lei, prevailed in all the loans contracted by private people.  

The average interest rate on the new credits provided in hard currency was 4.58 per cent on the concerned period. In July 2019, banks provided loans in hard currency in an equivalent sum of 806 million lei.