The deposit-lending spread narrowed slightly in Aprilas banks kept the former unchanged while slightly reducing the latter.

According to the data of the Bank of Greece the interest rate spread between new deposits and loans narrowed to 5.45% from 5.71% which was in March, as the weighted average interest rate on new deposits remained unchanged at 0.53%, while the corresponding interest rate on new loans fell to 5.98%.

In more detail, the average interest rate on overnight deposits from households remained unchanged at 0.03%, while the corresponding interest rate on corporate deposits remained almost unchanged at 0.16%.

The average interest rate on deposits with an agreed term of up to 1 year from households increased by 6 basis points and stood at 1.83%, while the corresponding interest rate on deposits from businesses remained almost unchanged at 3.19%.

On the lending side, the weighted average interest rate of all new loans to households and businesses decreased by 26 basis points (0.26%) and stood at 5.98%.

In particular, the average interest rate on consumer loans without a fixed term (a category that includes credit card loans, open loans and overdrafts from current accounts) decreased by 11 basis points (0.11%) and stood at 15.07%.

The average interest rate on fixed-term consumer loans with a variable rate decreased by 21 basis points (0.21%) to 11.61%, while the average interest rate on mortgage loans with a variable rate increased by 10 basis points to 5 ,11%.

The average interest rate on business loans without a fixed term decreased by 5 basis points (0.05%) to 6.69%. The corresponding interest rate on business loans remained almost unchanged at 7.67%.

The average interest rate on new fixed term and variable rate business loans decreased by 27 basis points to 5.95%. The average interest rate on fixed-term loans with a variable interest rate to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) increased by 5 basis points and stood at 6.15%.

Regarding the structure of interest rates in terms of the amount of the loan, it is noted that the average interest rate for loans up to 250,000 euros increased by 49 basis points (0.49%) and stood at 5.90%, for loans from 250,001 to 1 million. euro increased by 8 basis points to 6.08%, while for loans over 1 million euros it decreased by 30 basis points to 5.94%.