The Minister of National Economy and Finance Kostis Hatzidakis asked the banks to maintain the low mortgage interest rates this year as wellspeaking this morning on his television SKY.

“We, not only hope, but we can’t imagine that banks won’t extend lower mortgage rates, which they had adopted last year for one year. Because interest rates at the European level remain high, we think they will move in that direction”he said characteristically.

In addition, Mr. Hatzidakis underlined how this results both from the good image of the Greek economy and from the acquisition of investment grade.

“We must not forget that our banks were crippled over the past decade and if we don’t have a healthy banking system, we don’t have a healthy economy. If you look at the data, you will see that interest rates have gone up all over Europe and of course in Greece as well. The difference in interest rates compared to last year has narrowed. In other words, the average difference between European interest rates and Greek interest rates is smaller precisely because the economy has progressed and we have the investment grade. Another positive result of the investment grade”as the Minister said.

Regarding the interest rate spread on loans and deposits, Mr. Hatzidakis said that “apart from the interest rates on savings deposits which are really small, the banks have no reason to increase them in the sense that they have 112 billion loans and 200 billion deposits. So they have no reason to give higher interest rates to collect money, because they have money. But there are other possibilities for consumers.”

As the Minister said, citizens have the possibility to choose among other products provided by the banks, about which they themselves should inform consumers more, and the interest on Treasury bills, with an interest rate of 4%. “We don’t say: ‘go get this’ or ‘go get the other bank products.’ Everyone is a free citizen to do what they want,” he noted.

In addition, he also referred to ability of non-banking institutions to give loans. “What we want is for competition to work. And that is why we are investing in the 5th pillar of the banking system and with a law passed in December, we allowed non-banking institutions, as is done in many other European countries, to give loans not only for consumption, but also for housing and some business. Because we want to strengthen competition”he said.