Corporate loan growth picked up in summer
The stock of loans granted by credit institutions to non-financial corporations has, for many years, grown at a more robust pace in Finland than in the euro area on average. The Finnish growth rates have been fuelled by a brisk growth in loans to housing corporations, even though growth in the Finnish corporate loan stock has generally exceeded euro area growth figures also when excluding housing corporation loans. The Finnish and euro area growth rates have converged in 2016 and 2017.
Corporate loan growth in Finland picked up again in summer 2018. In August, the stock of housing corporation loans grew already at an annual rate of 11%. There was also a strong acceleration during the summer in the annual growth rate of the stock of loans to Finnish non-financial corporations other than housing corporation. In August, the annual growth rate was 5.2%.
The higher growth in the corporate loan stock reflects an increase in drawdowns of corporate loans. In January–August 2018, drawdowns of corporate loans were 19% up on the corresponding period in 2017. Growth in the corporate loan stock in August is explained by large loan agreements: loans of over EUR 1 million were drawn down in an amount of EUR 2 bn.
Loans
Households’ new drawdowns of housing loans amounted to EUR 1.5 bn in August 2018. The average interest rate on new housing-loan drawdowns was 0.87% and the imputed margin was 0.85%. At the end of August 2018, the stock of euro-denominated housing loans amounted to EUR 97.3 bn and the annual growth rate of the stock was 2.04%. Household credit at end-August comprised EUR 15.8 bin in consumer credit and EUR 17.0 bn in other loans.
New drawdowns of loans to non-financial corporations (excl. overdrafts and credit card credit) amounted to EUR 2.8 bn in August. The average interest rate on new corporate-loan drawdowns rose from July, to 2.97%. At the end of August, the stock of euro-denominated loans to non-financial corporations was EUR 84.3 bn, of which loans to housing corporations accounted for EUR 30.5 bn.
Deposits
The stock of household deposits at end-August totalled EUR 86.7 bn and the average interest rate on these deposits was 0.12%. Overnight deposits accounted for EUR 73.4 bn and deposits with agreed maturity for EUR 5.6 bn of the deposit stock. In August, households concluded EUR 0.2 bn of new agreements on deposits with agreed maturity, at an average interest rate of 0.32%.
Key figures of Finnish MFIs' loans and deposits, preliminary data
| June, EUR million | July, EUR million | August, EUR million | August, 12-month change1, % | Average interest rate, % | |
| Loans to households2, stock | 129.555 | 129.648 | 130.084 | 2.4 | 1.48 |
| - of which housing loans | 97.080 | 97.111 | 97.296 | 2.0 | 0.98 |
| Loans to non-financial corporations2, stock | 83.112 | 83.020 | 84.274 | 7.8 | 1.42 |
| Deposits by households2, stock | 91.108 | 90.554 | 90.771 | 4.7 | 0.12 |
| Households' new drawdowns of housing loans | 1.770 | 1.493 | 1.546 | 0.87 |
1 Rate of change has been calculated from monthly differences in levels adjusted for classification and other revaluation changes.
2 Households also include non-profit institutions serving households; non-financial corporations also include housing corporations
- Euro-denominated deposits and loans of euro area residents: stock, 12 month rate of change and average interest rate
- Euro-denominated loans and deposits of Finnish households
- New business on loans and new drawdowns of household loans
- Finnish contribution to the euro area monetary aggregates and their main counterparts
- Imputed interest rate margins on loans from MFIs
For further information, please contact
Ville Tolkki, tel. +358 9 183 2420, email: ville.tolkki(at)bof.fi,
Johanna Honkanen, tel. +358 9 183 2992, email: johanna.honkanen(at)bof.fi.
The next news release will be published at 1 pm on 31 October 2018.
Related statistical data and graphs are also available on the Bank of Finland website: https://www.suomenpankki.fi/en/Statistics/mfi-balance-sheet/.