Lower growth rate for household loans

Households' loans from MFIs totalled SEK 2 344 billion at the end of January. Lending for housing purposes accounted for SEK 1 565 billion while households' consumption loans accounted for SEK 153 billion. The growth rate for households' housing loans was 11.4 percent while it was 5.7 percent for consumption loans. The figures for the same period one year ago were 10.4 percent for housing loans and 6.9 percent for consumption loans.

MFIs' lending to non-financial corporations had a negative growth rate since September 2009, and in January 2010 it was -5.0 percent. The growth rate was -5.3 percent in December of 2009. Lending to non-financial corporations amounted to SEK 1 686 billion at the end of January. This can be compared to January 2009 when lending to non-financial corporations equalled SEK 1 774 billion with a growth rate of 10.5 percent.
 

Higher interest rates to households

Lending rates to households rose somewhat in January compared to December. The average rate for a new household loan through MFIs was 1.96 percent in January and 1.89 percent in December. Most of the new household loans are taken with floating interest rates and these loans averaged 1.80 percent in January. This was an increase from 1.73 percent in December.

MFIs' lending rates for new loans to non-financial corporations averaged 1.60 percent in January. This was lower than in December when the interest rate was 1.72 percent. In December 2009 the interest rate on new loans to non-financial corporations was 3.06 percent.

Positive growth for M3

The growth rate for the narrow monetary aggregate M1 was 7.5 percent in January. This was somewhat lower than in December when the growth rate was 7.9 percent. In total, M1 amounted to SEK 1 624 billion.

The growth rate for the broad monetary aggregate M3 was 0.7 percent, after having been -2.7 percent in December. In total, M3 amounted to SEK 2 227 billion in January, an increase of SEK 39 billion compared to December. The sub-item that contributed the most to the increase is the holdings of short-term securities of the general public.

Revisions for new loans

The reporting of new loans issued by housing credit institutions has shown that a number of loans with a fixed period of three months have been presented as loans with fixed interest rates. The time series have therefore been revised, meaning that amounts have been moved from loans with fixed interest to loans with floating interest. The share of loans with floating rates has thus increased after the revision.

Of the new loans taken in January to households from housing credit institutions, 84.5 percent of the amount loaned was at a floating interest rate while 15.5 percent of the amount loaned was at a fixed interest rate. In December 2009, 85.9 percent of the borrowed amount was taken with a floating rate while the corresponding share in January 2009 was 86.3 percent (revised figures). Loans with fixed periods up to three months are counted as floating interest rate loans.