The central bank released preliminary data today on the evolution of new consumer loans in April, showing a 2.2% increase in new personal loans to 319.8 million euros compared to the same month last year.
The amount for new auto loan operations rose 2.9% from a year ago to 283.2 million euros.
Conversely, the credit card and overdraft amounts fell by 6.3% to 111.9 million euros.
In April, there were 135,043 new consumer credit contracts, representing a 4.8% decrease from the previous year and an 8.6% drop from March.
In the fourth month of 2025, 71,822 credit card and overdraft contracts were signed (a 7.8% decrease year-on-year), 45,059 personal loans (-1.2%), and 18,162 auto loans (-0.6%).
Out of the total new credit contracts in April, 4.3% were subsidized contracts, compared to 4.5% a year earlier and 4.1% in March.
“Subsidized credit contracts are entered into between the credit institution and the consumer, but part of the credit cost is covered by a third party (e.g., the point of sale where the consumer purchases the financed good),” explains the central bank.
As a proportion of the total amount, these subsidized credits represented 5.6% in April, versus 5.8% in April 2024 and 5.4% in March.
