Funding for businesses and households fell again in February due to a drop in mortgages and loans to businesses

Bank financing of companies and families fell again in February and 0.8% in both cases, according to data published this Monday by the Bank of Spain. Tightening of credit conditions, with higher requirements of financial institutions to avoid wrongdoingthe rise in interest rates and the economic uncertainty that continues to dominate the scenario affect the financing of companies and households.

homes have loans for a total of 692,466 million euros in February, which means 5.627 million less than in the same month last year and 3.070 million less than in January. This is the third month in a row that the funding balance has decreased. And this decline is mostly due to the fact that there are fewer and fewer mortgage loans because banks have tightened up, but also because high housing prices and rising interest rates affect demand. Namely, the balance of mortgage loans in February amounted to EUR 508,376 million (73% of total financing for households), with a decrease of EUR 6,539 million compared to the same month of the previous year and EUR 2,123 million less than in January of this year.

On the contrary, consumer loans recorded a year-on-year increase of 3.5% reached EUR 94.853 million, although it fell slightly compared to the previous month.

Six months of the decline of societies

Company financing balance sheet was reduced by HRK 7,521 million in February compared to the same month last year, a decrease of 0.8%, while in January of this year the decrease amounted to EUR 2,050 million. It has been six consecutive months of funding cuts. Namely, loans from credit institutions are one billion less than in January and by 8,700 million euros compared to February last year. The evolution of debt securities also recorded a decrease of almost 9,000 million compared to February 2022 and close to 500 million compared to January.

The total balance of business financing in February was HRK 929,281 millionof which approximately half (472,160 million) are loans from credit institutions, the rest are foreign loans (323,284 million), which increased by 10% compared to the same month last year, and debt securities (133,838 million euros).