Latest news with #householdconsumption
Bloomberg
9 hours ago
- Business
- Bloomberg
Euro Zone Is Still Held Back by Rising Mortgage Rates, ECB Finds
Household consumption in the euro area will remain restrained for some time as past interest-rate hikes continue to feed through to mortgages, according to research by the European Central Bank. The impact will be felt even after the ECB lowered its deposit rate to 2% from 4% starting in June 2024, economists at the Frankfurt-based institution wrote in a paper published Wednesday. That's because fixed-rate loans taken out when inflation was low are still expiring. Borrowing costs for those that are refinanced will jump to current levels.
Reuters
30-05-2025
- Business
- Reuters
Czech growth helped by investment, exports, tariffs cloud outlook, central bank says
PRAGUE, May 30 (Reuters) - Czech Republic's 2.2% year-on-year economic expansion in the first quarter was above the central bank's forecast of 2.1% mainly thanks to more resilient investments and exports, but the uncertainty over the impact of U.S. tariffs cloud the outlook, the central bank said on Friday. The bank said increase in household consumption -- which is the overall growth driver -- was lower at 2.5% than its forecast of 3.3%. Investment dropped year-on-year but less than expected and grew in quarterly terms, while exports were also more resilient than expected, the bank said. "For both investment and exports, however, the question is how much the positive developments were due to one-off stockpiling by firms ahead of an expected rise in trade barriers," the bank said. It said that while investments and exports would be the first to be hit by large tariff barriers, continued strong household spending should put full-year 2025 growth at around 2%.
