The Euribor rate rose this Thursday to three, six and 12 months. The 12-month rate, currently the most used in Portugal for variable rate mortgage loans, increased by 0.017 points and reached 3.642%, a new high since December 2008.
According to the Bank of Portugal, the 12-month Euribor already represents 43% of the “stock” of loans for permanent home ownership with a variable rate, while the six-month Euribor represents 32%.
The 12-month Euribor has been in positive territory since 21 April in 2022, after on the 12th of April to 0.005%, ending the negative cycle that lasted since February 2016. The average advanced from 3.018% in December to 3.338% in January.
Within six months, the Euribor rate, which entered positive territory on June 6, 2022, advanced this Thursday to 3.198%, plus 0.001 points, but below the maximum verified on February 21. This rate was negative for six years and seven months (between November 6, 2015 and June 3, 2022). The six-month Euribor average rose from 2.560% in December to 2.864% in January, up 0.304 points.
Finally, the three-month Euribor, which entered positive territory on 14 July 2022 for the first time since April 2015, rose this Thursday to 2.693%, 0.010 points more, but below the maximum of 2.703%, registered on the 16th of February.
The three-month Euribor average rose from 2.063% in December to 2.354% in January, that is, an increase of 0.291 points.
The Euribor began to rise significantly from February 4, 2022, after the European Central Bank (ECB) admitted a rise in key interest rates during 2023, as a result of rising inflation in the euro zone, a trend reinforced with the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on 24 February 2022.
At the last monetary policy meeting, on February 2nd, the ECB once again raised the key interest rates by 50 basis points, an increase equal to that carried out on December 15th, when the pace of increases slowed down in relation to the two previously recorded, which were 75 basis points on 27 October and 8 September, respectively.
The three-, six- and 12-month Euribor rates registered historic lows, respectively, of -0.605% on December 14, 2021, -0.554% and -0.518% on December 20, 2021.
The Euribor rates are set at the average rate at which a group of 57 banks in the eurozone are willing to lend money to each other on the interbank market.