In January 2025, Ukrainian banks raised rates on loans to households. The loan portfolio grew. This was reported by RBC-Ukraine with reference to operational data from the National Bank of Ukraine (NBU).
According to the NBU, average interest rates on new bank loans to households in the national currency amounted to 35.1% per annum. A month ago, rates were at 34.1%. At the same time, banks reduced rates on loans to enterprises in hryvnia from 15.8% to 14.4% per annum.
The bank loan portfolio for households grew by 1.8% to 279 billion hryvnia, for enterprises – decreased by 0.7% to 813 billion hryvnia.
Loans to households
According to the NBU, the share of loans in the expenses of Ukrainians increased to a historical maximum. The ratio of new consumer loans of banks to the volume of household consumption reached 16%.
At the same time, the debt burden of bank borrowers remains heterogeneous depending on the income level: in general, the indicators are higher among the population with lower incomes, although banks offer smaller credit limits to such borrowers and the level of use of this credit limit will be higher.
In the fourth quarter of 2024, banks reduced the cost of loans to the population and increased the size of consumer loans. In the first quarter of 2025, Ukrainian banks plan to relax credit standards for consumer loans. According to bank estimates, the debt burden of households remains low. During 2024, the share of respondents who assessed the debt burden of households as low was significantly higher than in 2023.
Bank rates on loans to the population have remained above 30% for many years due to high risks of non-return of funds.
