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Euribor rises to three and 12 months and falls to six months

The Euribor rate rose today to three and 12 months and fell to six months compared to Monday.

With today’s changes, the three-month Euribor, which increased to 3.935%, remained above the six-month rate (3.909%) and the 12-month rate (3.756%).

The six-month Euribor rate, which became the most used in Portugal in housing loans with variable rates and which was above 4% between September 14th and December 1st, dropped today to 3.909%, 0.006 points less than on Monday, after having advanced on October 18 to 4.143%, a new high since November 2008.

According to data from the Bank of Portugal (BdP) for January, the six-month Euribor represented 36.4% of the stock of loans for permanent home ownership with variable rates. The same data indicates that the 12- and three-month Euribor represented 35.7% and 24.4%, respectively.

Conversely, within 12 months, the Euribor rate, which was above 4% between June 16 and November 29, rose today to 3.756%, 0.006 points more than in the previous session, against the maximum since November 2008, 4.228%, registered on September 29th.

The three-month Euribor also advanced today, being set at 3.935%, plus 0.007 points, after having risen on October 19 to 4.002%, a new maximum since November 2008.

The Euribor average in February fell again to three months, but rose in the two longer maturities.

The Euribor average in February fell 0.002 points to 3.923% for three months (compared to 3.925% in January), but rose 0.009 points to 3.901% for six months (compared to 3.892%) and 0.062 points to 3.671% for 12 months (compared to 3.609 %).

At the last monetary policy meeting, on March 7, the European Central Bank (ECB) maintained reference interest rates for the fourth consecutive meeting, after 10 increases since July 21, 2022.

The ECB’s next monetary policy meeting takes place on April 11 in Frankfurt.

Euribor began to rise more significantly from February 4, 2022, after the ECB admitted that it could raise key interest rates due to the increase in inflation in the euro zone and the trend was reinforced with the start of the invasion of Ukraine by Russia on February 24, 2022.

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.

Euribor is set by the average of the rates at which a group of 19 banks in the euro zone are willing to lend money to each other in the interbank market.