The Minister of National Economy and Finance, Kostis Hatzidakis, asked the banks to maintain the low mortgage interest rates this year, speaking this morning on SKAI TV.
“We not only hope, but cannot imagine that the banks will not extend the lower mortgage rates they adopted last year for a year. Because interest rates at the European level remain high, we believe they will move in that direction,” said the minister.
In addition, Mr. Hatzidakis underlined that this results both from the good image of Greek economy as well as from the acquisition of the investment grade. “We must not forget that our banks were crippled last 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 tier” as the minister said.
Regarding the interest rate spread on loans and deposits, Mr. Hatzidakis said that “apart from interest rates on savings bank 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-bearing 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 pointed out.
In addition, he mentioned the possibility of non-banking institutions giving 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 competition to be strengthened,” he said.
Source: RES-MPE
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