Analytics, Banks, Direct Speech, Estonia, Financial Services, Loan, Real Estate

• Corporate and household loan and lease portfolio grew strongly in April, up almost 7% y-o-y. Issuance of new long-term loans to companies remained unchanged from April 2016. New housing loans have seen an increase relative to a year ago.Deposits with banks continued to grow faster than the loan and lease portfolio.

Corporate and household loan and lease portfolio continued to grow solidly in April, increasing 6.6% y-o-y. The loan and lease stock grew by approximately 73 mln euros, amounting to around 17.4 bn euros as of the end of the month.

The corporate loan and lease stock grew 7% year-on-year. Growth has been stable this year at a level close to last year’s average. Short-term loans have picked up over the past few months. Growth has been fastest for loans to the primary sector and trade companies. New long-term loans were issued to companies in the value of 228 mln euros, a level more or less unchanged from April 2016.

Housing loan portfolio was up 6% year-on-year in April. Housing loans have been gathering pace since the second half of 2016. The housing and loan market activity has been intensified by an increase in transactions with new apartments.The volume of housing loans issued in the year to April has grown, relative to last year’s figure. There has been an increase in the number of contracts as well as the average amount of a loan.

Household car leasing continued to grow at a fast pace, up 14% year-on-year. The stock of overdraft and credit card loans started to increase in the second half of 2016 and gained slightly over 3% in March and April compared to a year earlier.

The average interest rate for new housing loans has risen slightly, resuming the mid-2016 level. The average interest rate of housing loans issued in April was 2.3%. The interest rate of corporate long-term loans was, on average, considerably high in April relative to the past months, affected by the refinancing of loans restructured to avoid default.

The volume of loans overdue over 60 days remained low in April. The volume of loans overdue over 60 days was 163 million euros, accounting for 1.1% of the loan portfolio. 97% of such loans are covered by loan-loss provisions.

Corporate and household deposits continue to outpace the loan and lease portfolio. Corporate and household deposits were up 11% year-on-year in April, amounting to almost 12 bn euros as of the end of the month. Annual growth in corporate deposits accelerated to 15%. Similar to previous months, household deposits gained approximately 8% on a year earlier.