Recent developments in financing and bank lending to the non-financial private sector. 3rd quarter of 2021

In recent months, financing conditions for non-financial corporations and households have remained very favourable, while demand for credit has lost momentum. In this setting, the flow of new financing raised by these two institutional sectors and their outstanding debt have slowed down. Indeed, the volume of loans granted by deposit institutions to the resident private sector has declined slightly between June and September 2021, with no significant changes in credit quality over the quarter. The sectors of activity most affected by the health crisis have not shown any notable changes in 2021 Q3 in terms of volume and credit quality, although they continue to post the highest cumulative growth in bank debt, non-performing loans and Stage 2 loans since the start of the pandemic. The rise in the volume of credit since the onset of the heath crisis has helped to sustain banks’ interest income, but has failed to offset the negative price effects of the widespread decline in interest rates.