Budapest, 29 November 2012 – The Magyar Nemzeti Bank has today published the results of its latest lending survey. The survey conducted in October 2012, i.e. before the Government’s announcements related to the financial transaction tax and the levy on banks, found that the number of companies able to meet banks’ tightening no-price credit conditions was declining. On the whole, therefore, the number of companies with access to credit was also falling.
According to the results of the lending survey conducted in October 2012, i.e. before the Government’s announcements related to the financial transaction tax and the levy on banks, conditions on both housing loans and consumption loans had eased in 2012 Q3. Looking forward, banks expected household demand for lending to increase; the introduction of the state interest rate subsidy scheme from early next year might be a factor boosting demand for housing loans.
Non-price conditions on lending to the corporate sector had tightened further in Q3, leading to a fall in the number of companies with access to credit. Lenders cited low willingness to lend as the underlying reason for tightening non-price conditions, mainly reflecting the unfavourable macroeconomic environment and industry-specific problems. This is also explained by the fact that the net percentage of institutions tightening credit standards was higher in Hungary compared with the average of the Central and Eastern European region. Demand for long-term investment loans perceived by banks had fallen further: the net percentage of banks reporting a decrease in demand had last been similar in 2009.
The questionnaire of the lending survey did not cover developments in nominal interest rates. Interest rate data, which reflects costs of access to credit for creditworthy corporations, will be released by the Bank on 30 November 2012.
The Magyar Nemzeti Bank launched its questionnaire-based survey in the spring of 2003. The survey, conducted on a quarterly basis, gathers information on Hungarian commercial banks’ lending practices. It aims to present banks’ assessments regarding domestic market credit conditions. The latest survey is based on the questionnaires completed by banks in October 2012: it reflects their responses to backward-looking questions relating to 2012 Q3 as well as their expectations for 2012 Q4 and 2013 Q1.
MAGYAR NEMZETI BANK
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