In December, the average interest rate on loans in the national currency slightly decreased compared to the previous month, reaching 23.4%. This represents a reduction of 0.6% compared to the same time last year, according to the Central Bank.
For loans with a term of up to one year, the rate dropped by 2 percentage points to 21.3%, marking the lowest rate since November 2023. Meanwhile, payments on long-term loans rose for the first time in 10 months to 24.4% (+0.9%).
Interest rates on loans for individuals stood at 24.9%, increasing by 0.6% over the month and decreasing by 0.3% compared to last December. For short-term loans, the rate was 26.9% (+0.3% for the month), while for longer-term loans, it was 24.9% (+0.7%).
In corporate lending, the average rate decreased to 22.5%, which is a drop of 0.2% from November and 0.6% over the year. Payments on loans for businesses with a term of up to one year were at 21.1% (-2.1% for the month), while in the long-term segment, the rate rose by 1.4%, reaching 23.8% for the first time since 2020.
Loans in foreign currency became slightly cheaper in December, with the rate at 9.9%, which is 0.3% lower than the previous month. However, on an annual basis, it increased by half a percentage point.
Interest rates on short-term foreign currency loans fell again to 10.3% (-0.5%). Long-term borrowings showed a more modest decline to 9.6% (-0.1%), although in both cases, there had been an increase over the previous six months.
Earlier, Spot reported that the Central Bank announced the prevention of fraudulent online loans totaling 285 billion sums.