The remuneration of new time deposits of individuals fell in April for the 16th consecutive month, to 1.64%, reaching the lowest since May 2023, the Banco de Portugal (BDP) released on Wednesday.
According to data from the bank supervisor, the average interest rate of new deadlines of private private deposits retreated in April 0.05 percentage points (PP) compared to March and compares with 2.75% in the same month last year.
This is the lowest remuneration of time deposits by Portuguese banks since May 2023 (1.39%), after in December of the same year having reached a maximum of 12 years of 3.08%.
Since then this rate has been consecutively retreated.
At the end of April, the amount of new private deposits reached 12,970 million euros, plus 61 million euros than in March and 21.8% above the homologous value.
The average interest rate of new deposits within one year lowered 0.05 pp between March and April to 1.65%. Despite the reduction, this “continued to be the deadline class with the highest average remuneration and represented 96% of new deposits in April.”
In the European framework, the average also registered a drop of 0.12 pp in April, settling at 1.99% and being below 2.00% for the first time since February 2023.
Portugal remained in fifth position among countries with the lower average interest rate.
With companies, the average remuneration for time deposits went from 2.16% in March, to 2.01% in April, with new deposits added 9,848 million euros (plus 366 million euros in chain and more 23.3% in homologous terms).
After a period of stimulus in deposit remuneration -with the increase in interest rates -the associated interest rate went down again.
In late May, the European Commissioner for Financial Services and Union of Savings and Investments, Maria Luís Albuquerque, considered that “it is safe that money is lost” in time deposits.
“We got used to thinking that bank deposits are safe and have no risk, I would say that, at this time, it is safe to lose money, because the actual profitability is negative,” said the commissioner at the Annual Conference of the Securities Market Commission (CMVM) on May 30.
In the understanding of Maria Luís Albuquerque, while in the capital market there is “risk of loss”, in deposits has been “a certainty of loss in recent years”.
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