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Abstract
We study heterogeneity in households’ credit across nine European countries (Belgium, Spain, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Portugal, and Slovakia) during 2022-2024 using granular credit register data. We first document substantial between- and within-country variation in mortgage and consumer lending by borrower age, loan maturity, and interest rate fixation. We then quantify the passthrough of the ECB’s recent tightening cycle to household borrowing costs, and assess its heterogeneous impact across households. Pass-through is nearly complete for mortgages (around 0.9) but considerably weaker for consumer credit (around 0.4). While mortgage pass-through is relatively homogeneous across countries, consumer credit shows pronounced cross-country differences that cannot be explained by borrower or loan characteristics. Younger households face stronger mortgage pass-through but weaker consumer credit pass-through relative to older borrowers, and longer maturities are associated with stronger pass-through in both credit markets.
Keywords: monetary policy transmission; household borrowing; credit registers; interest rate pass-through; cross-country heterogeneityJEL codes: E52, G21, D14
All results 1
No 136
2025-12-04
Household Borrowing and Monetary Policy Transmission: Post-Pandemic Insights from Nine European Credit Registers
Olivier De Jonghe, Konstantins Beņkovskis, Karolis Bielskis, Diana Bonfim, Margherita Bottero, Tamás Briglevics, Martin Cesnak, Mantas Dirma, Marina Emiris, Pálma Filep-Mosberger, Valentin Jouvanceau, Nicholas Kaiser Dmitry Khametshin, Tibor Lalinsky, Viola M. Grolmusz, Laura Moretti, Artūrs Jānis Ņikitins, Angelo Nunnari, Maria Rodriguez-Moreno, Elitsa Stefanova, Lajos Tamás Szabó, Kārlis Vilerts, and Sujiao Emma Zhao, Sujiao Emma Zhao