The year began with fewer loans taken out from banks. The loans released in January totaled 3.127,66 billion, 28.6% on December. According to the National Bank of Moldova, 78.4% of the loans were raised by nonfinancial commercial organizations, IPN reports.

The applicants for loans prefer to borrow money in Moldovan lei. Of all the loans raised in January, almost 69% were loans in national currency. By the repayment period, the loans repayable in two to five years represented 50.3% of all the loans.

The nominal average interest rate on new loans provided in national currency grew by 0.29 percentage points on a month before to 14.26%. The average rate on loans in foreign currencies rose by 0.64 percentage points to 5.76%.

The private individuals in January 2023 took out loans totaling 558.7 million lei (-12.5% on a month before). Some 75.7% of these were consumer loans. Most of these loans, to the total value, 347.2 million lei, were granted in national currency for a period of two to five years.

The mortgages accounted for slightly over 19% of all the loans provided to private individuals and were released mainly in national currency (61.5%).

The average interest rate on consumer loans in national currency decreased by 0.19 percentage points to 16.71%, while the average interest rate on mortgages in national currency increased by 0.20 percentage points to 13.21%.

Compared with a month before, the legal entities applied for fewer loans in national currency (-33.3%) and in foreign currencies (-26.6%) and for loans attached to the currency rate (-52.8%). Most of the new loans (78.4%) were taken out by nonfinancial commercial organizations.