The CBBH Published New Interest Rates Statistics

The Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (CBBH) has established the new interest rates statistics, and began publishing those, and thus made significant progress towards reaching EU standards in the field of statistics. The new interest rates statistics are harmonized with the methodology prescribed by the European Central Bank (ECB) and applied by the EU and the euro area countries.

These statistics include 82 indicators on weighted averages of the commercial banks interest rates, with data series starting from January 2012. Out of these 82 indicators, 60 are related to the interest rates for different types of commercial banks loans, and 20 on interest rates for deposits with commercial banks.

In its preparatory phase, this project was supported by technical assistance from the IPA 2008 funds for the CBBH, which was implemented in cooperation with the ECB, and the Austrian National Bank (OeNB).

Timely and reliable information on the interest rates has the crucial significance in the process of making decisions on investing, saving, monitoring of the transmission mechanism of monetary policy, therefore the new interest rate statistics allow reliable analysis of monetary developments and the situation at the financial markets. At the same time, it is possible to make direct comparison of interest rates in BH and in the countries which apply an identical type of methodology.

Published data on interest rates, with an accompanying Methodology for compiling and presenting statistics of interest rates will be available on the CBBH website - www.cbbh.ba (Statistics / Financial Sector BH / Statistics of Interest Rates), as well as in all future publications. Compilation of previous interest rate statistics, with 26 indicators, stopped at the end of 2012, but the data are still available on the website (Statistics / Financial Sector BH / Archive).

The most characteristic interest rates on household loans are the rates  on general-purpose loans (in KM, but indexed) with a variable interest rate, in February, being 9.06%, and during the last few months it was at a similar level. For housing loans (variable rate, indexed) interest rates are significantly lower and in February amounted to 6.75%, while  in the previous year mainly did not exceed the level of 7%. Interest rates on consumer loans (variable interest rates, indexed) are slightly above 8% and in February amounted to 8.23%.

For loans to enterprises, interest rates are classified according to the amount of the loan (up to KM 500,000, from KM 500,000 to KM 2 million and over KM 2 million).

In the category of up-to KM 500,000 loans, the prevailing are those with variable rate and interest rate in February was 8.1% (lower in relation to the trends in 2012).

Loans in this category of KM 500,000 - KM 2 million are significantly cheaper and the interest rate in February was 6.56%, lower than the average in the previous year.

Loans over KM 2 million KM (variable rate, in KM) in February had an interest rate of 6.28%, while in 2012, it was mainly over 6.5%.

Lending in foreign currencies is very poorly represented in domestic banks, because the majority of lending is done in local currency - KM or in  KM with currency clause.

According to the new methodology, the interest rate on deposits now allows comparison across different periods of maturity.

Interest on deposits (in EUR) have a clear gradation in terms of the level of interest rates, because the up-to one year agreed maturity loans have an interest rate of 2.2%, those with  1-2 years maturity have the rate of 3.45% and those with maturity over 2 years, have the rate of 4.2%.

Companies make deposits primarily in local currency, and interest rates range from 3.34% (maturity up to 1 year) to 4.93 (maturities between 1 and 2 years).

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