The Bank of Lithuania published the monetary financial institution (MFI) balance sheet and interest rate data for March 2024, which show that loans to Lithuanian residents increased by €410.9 million, or 1.5%, over the month. The annual growth rate stood at 4.5%.

Loans to Lithuanian non-financial corporations and households went up by €307.1 mln and €81.7 mln, or 2.9% and 0.6%, respectively – their annual growth rates stood at 7.8% and 6.6% respectively. Loans to the financial sector grew by €29.3 mln, whereas those to the general government decreased by €7.2 mln. At the end of March 2024, loans to these sectors amounted to €10.9 bn, €14.7 bn, €1.5 bn and €351.2 mln respectively.

Deposits of Lithuanian residents with credit institutions rose by €22.7 mln, or 0.1%, over the month – their annual growth rate was 5.5%. Household deposits went up by €141.0 mln, or 0.6%, while non-financial corporation deposits declined by €146.5 mln, or 1.4% – their annual growth rates stood at 7.0% and -0.4% respectively. At the end of the month, household and non-financial corporation deposits amounted to €22.6 bn and €10.6 bn respectively.

General government and financial sector deposits grew by €21.9 mln and €6.3 mln respectively in March, to stand at €5.0 bn and €1.1 bn respectively at the end of the month.

Loans to Lithuanian households for house purchase, consumption, and other purposes granted by credit institutions rose by €59.3 mln (0.5%), €20.2 mln (1.8%), and €2.3 mln (0.2%) respectively over the month. The outstanding amounts of these loans amounted to €12.3 bn, €1.1 bn, and €1.3 bn respectively, and their annual growth rates totaled 5.9%, 20.4%, and 2.7% respectively.

At the same time, the Bank of Lithuania published a comparison of interest rates on loans of local and euro-area credit institutions (banks and credit unions) and deposits with agreed maturity (term deposits) in March 2024. More detailed data on the ECB Data Portal.

Interest rates on loans and new business of deposits with agreed maturity of euro area credit institutions to euro area residents published by the ECB show that, from December 2023 to March 2024, of all euro area average interest rates, the average interest rate on loans for consumption was the only one to increase.

The highest interest rates on loans for consumption and other purposes granted to households declined by more than 2 percentage points in the euro area, while Lithuanian households were offered the highest interest rates on deposits of over 2 years.

Interest rates on loans for house purchases granted by credit institutions operating in Lithuania to households increased by 0.05 percentage points in three months to 5.67%, while their euro area average went down by 0.24 percentage points, amounting to 3.77%.

Interest rates on loans for consumption granted by credit institutions operating in Lithuania to households fell by 0.02 percentage points in three months to 9.66%, their euro area average went up by 0.12 percentage points to 7.82%.

Both the interest rates on loans for other purposes granted by credit institutions operating in Lithuania to households and their euro area average decreased by 0.39 percentage points and 0.03 percentage points respectively in three months, to 7.61% and 5.25% respectively.