An Overview of the Enhanced Interest Rate Statistics for Ireland

Accurate, detailed and timely interest rate statistics are an important input into both monetary policy decision-making and domestic policy initiatives. An enhanced interest rate statistics framework was implemented in Ireland and across the eurozone at the beginning of 2015, facilitating a more precise assessment of household and NFC developments. These showed that new business mortgage rates for Ireland were significantly impacted by renegotiations. Similar trends were not evident across the euro area, reflecting the structural differences in euro area mortgage markets. In terms of new business NFC loans, the impact of renegotiations on the corresponding Irish interest rates series was negligible. Furthermore, the latest data for Ireland highlight a shift from floating rate to fixed rate mortgages, which have recently begun to offer lower rates. New data for SMEs show significant differences in rates applied to different types of economic activity. In general, new business rates to SMEs are elevated when compared to rates on existing loans. The new series indicate that rates in Ireland are generally higher than euro area equivalents for both household and SME loans.