The most common reference rate for Finnish housing loans, the 12-month Euribor, fell to 3.794 percent on Monday.
On Friday the figure was 3.902 percent. Jan von Gerich, Chief Analyst at Nordea, said on the social media site X (formerly Twitter) that Monday’s daily drop was exceptionally large.
The 12-month Euribor has already fallen by almost half a percentage point from its September high. The one-year Euribor has recently fallen below the six- and three-month Euribors.
The Euribor is short for the Euro Interbank Offered Rate and is based on the average interest rate at which European banks borrow from one another.
The one-year Euribor peaked at the turn of September and October, when it hovered above 4.2 percent. It dipped below the four percent threshold on several occasions in mid-November and then dipped decisively around the end of November and beginning of December.
This rate is commonly used as the reference rate for Finnish mortgages, making it a key influence on household finances in the country.
Pasi Kuoppamäki, chief economist at Danske Bank, said that interest rates are now heading downwards. He said on the website X that, “interest rates were already too high for the Finnish economy.”
Markets are now speculating on when the European Central Bank (ECB) will start cutting interest rates. Slowing inflation and faltering economic growth in the eurozone suggests that the ECB may start cutting rates earlier than expected.
Source: Yle
