Analytics, Banks, Estonia, Financial Services, Loan

The rapid growth in loans and leases to companies continued in November. At the end of the month the portfolio of loans and leases to companies was 9.1% larger than at the same point a year earlier. The stock of loans to most sectors has grown, with the biggest growth during the year in loans to real estate companies. There was a reduction in borrowing from abroad by companies in the first three quarters of the year though, and so the total corporate debt has not changed in size substantially.

The annual growth in the housing loan portfolio accelerated to 5% in November. New loans worth 93 mln euros were issued, which is the same amount as in the past couple of months, but around 15% more than in November last year. Both the average loan size and the number of loans were up in November. Growth in the stock of other loans to households remained fast. The largest part of these were leases for cars, which were 16% more in volume in total than in the previous November.

The loan and lease portfolio of Estonian companies and households was in total 7.4% larger in November than a year previously. The total volume of loans and leases increased during the month by 115 mln euros to stand at 17.1 bln euros at the end of the month.

The average interest rate on housing loans had risen a little, but has fallen in recent months to its level of the start of the year. There are now more banks that are actively offering housing loans, and this has also affected the interest rates on those loans. The average interest rate for housing loans issued in November was 2.3%.

The volume of overdue loans in the portfolio remains small. At the end of the month the value of loans more than 60 days overdue was 180 mln euros, which is 1.2% of the loan portfolio.

Growth in corporate and household deposits was again fast in November. Corporate deposits were up 9.7% on a year earlier, and those of households were up a little less at 7.6%. The total volume of deposits increased during the month by 149 mln euros to 11.5 bln euros.