Consumer credit in Portugal drops sharply in April

Source: Xinhua | 2020-06-16

Bank of Portugal, the central bank of Portugal, reported on Monday that new consumer credit decreased 64 percent in April compared with the same period of the previous year, to 203 million euros (228.53 million U.S. dollars).

New consumer credit taken with banks and financial institutions, compared to March, fell 63.2 percent in April, which was the first month entirely affected by the isolation measures due to the COVID-19 pandemic, as the state of emergency was only decreed on March 18, according to the central bank of Portugal.

The amount of personal loans for education, health, renewable energies and equipment leasing was 955,000 euros (1.07 million U.S. dollars) in April, a most significant drop of 88 percent compared with April of last year and 83.9 percent drop compared with March.

Other non-specific personal loans, home loans, consolidated loans and others fell by 60 percent in April compared with April 2019, totaling 97.92 million euros (110.23 million U.S. dollars).

In number, new consumer loans fell 62.8 percent to 43,446 contracts in April, with the biggest drop of 96.6 percent being in personal credit contracts for education, health, renewable energy and financial leasing, the bank said.