The three, six and 12-month Euribor rates rose today to new highs since November 2008 .
The 12-month Euribor rate, which is currently the most used in Portugal in variable rate mortgages, advanced today, when it was set at 3.04%, up 0.011 points, but below the maximum since November 2008, of 3.978%, which occurred on March 9th.
According to March 2023 data from the Bank of Portugal, the 12-month Euribor represents 41% of the stock of variable rate permanent home loans. The same data indicate that six and three month Euribor rates represent 33.7% and 22.9%, respectively.
The average 12-month Euribor rate advanced from 3.647% in March to 3.757% in April, up 0.110 points.
In the six-month term, the Euribor rate, which entered positive territory on June 6, 2022, also rose today, to 3.732%, up 0.018 points from Monday and a new high since November 2008.
The average six-month Euribor rose from 3.267% in March to 3.516% in April, up 0.249 points.
In the same vein, the three-month Euribor, which entered positive territory on July 14 for the first time since April 2015, advanced today to 3.422%, up 0.010 points and a new high since November 2008.
The average three-month Euribor rose from 2.911% in March to 3.179% in April, an increase of 0.268 percentage points .
Euribor rates began to rise more significantly from February 04, 2022, after the European Central Bank (ECB) admitted it might raise key interest rates due to rising inflation in the Eurozone and the trend was reinforced with the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
At the most recent monetary policy meeting, on May 4, the ECB raised its key interest rates again for the seventh consecutive time, but only by 25 basis points, a lower increase than on March 16, February 2 and December 15, when it started to slow down the pace of increases compared to the two previous ones, which were 75 basis points, on October 27 and September 8, respectively.
On July 21, 2022, the ECB raised the three key interest rates by 50 basis points for the first time in 11 years.
The three, six and 12-month Euribor rates recorded all-time lows, respectively, of -0.605% on December 14, 2021, -0.554% and -0.518% on December 20, 2021.
