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Bloomberg
Sweden’s household lending grew last month at the slowest pace on record, as rates rise and home prices plunge.
In November, lending to households grew by 4.1%, which is the lowest annual increase since Statistics Sweden began collecting the data in 2006. Mortgages accounted for 82% of all new loans, the office said in a statement.
New lending has slowed considerably in recent months, as central bank moves to curb inflation sent interest costs skyrocketing. Since lifting its policy rate from zero in April, the Riksbank has followed peers in the most aggressive monetary tightening in decades, culminating in a September decision to increase the benchmark rate by a full-percentage point.
With the central bank rate now at 2.5%, the average interest rate on new agreements for mortgages was 3.42% in November. Floating rates were more than twice as high as a year earlier.