2012-04-23
Six -month VILIBOR is at its lowest point in the entire history of its calculation
Vilnius Inter-Bank Offered Rate (VILIBOR) reached its historically lowest point since 1999, when the calculation of this indicator was commenced. The six-month VILIBOR indicator, with which interest rates of loans in litas are most frequently linked, declined from 2.03% to 1.68% since the start of the year.
“This is good news to bank customers with loans in litas. Shrinking inter-bank interest rates ease their financial burden”, Chairman of the Board of the Bank of Lithuania Vitas Vasiliauskas said.
According to the data of the Bank of Lithuania, within the first two months of this year alone, interest payments of individuals and non-financial enterprises for loans in litas decreased by LTL 1.6 million mainly due to falling VILIBOR rates.
“The recent decline of VILIBOR has been caused by a decrease of euro area inter-bank interest rates (EURIBOR), litas surplus in the inter-bank market and the improvement of indicators reflecting Lithuania’s risk assessment”, said Vitas Vasiliauskas.
In March 2012, loans in litas made up about 28% or LTL 15.0 billion of the total loan portfolio. In Lithuania, the largest share of loans has been issued in euro – approximately 72% or LTL 38.7 billion of the total loan portfolio.
In recent months, bank customers with loans in euro have also been receiving good news. Six-month EURIBOR interest rates, with which the majority of euro loans are linked, declined from 1.62% (at the end of 2011) to 1.03% (on 20 April 2012).
This was the main reason for a LTL 5.2 million drop in the amount of interest paid by households and non-financial enterprises for euro loans within the first two months of 2012.