Swedes settle for fixed interest rates and fewer loans
After a series of recent interest rate increases, Swedish households are now borrowing less and are making the switch from variable to fixed-term loans. This is according to fresh figures from Statistics Sweden.
"According to our prognosis, the gap between variable and fixed term loans will continue to shrink and we expect people's interest in taking out fixed-term loans to continue," said Barbro Wickman-Parak, an economist at residential mortgage company SBAB.
The rise in household borrowing has now begun to subside somewhat. In November there was an increase of 11.7 percent, compared to a March high of 13.3 percent. By the end of November cumulative household loans amounted to 1.728 billion kronor.
The rate of growth of home loans is following the same pattern. In November almost half of the 29 billion kronor of new loans from mortgage lenders consisted of fixed-term loans. This can be compared with 39 percent in May 2006, which was the year's lowest figure for fixed-term loans.
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"According to our prognosis, the gap between variable and fixed term loans will continue to shrink and we expect people's interest in taking out fixed-term loans to continue," said Barbro Wickman-Parak, an economist at residential mortgage company SBAB.
The rise in household borrowing has now begun to subside somewhat. In November there was an increase of 11.7 percent, compared to a March high of 13.3 percent. By the end of November cumulative household loans amounted to 1.728 billion kronor.
The rate of growth of home loans is following the same pattern. In November almost half of the 29 billion kronor of new loans from mortgage lenders consisted of fixed-term loans. This can be compared with 39 percent in May 2006, which was the year's lowest figure for fixed-term loans.
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