by The three-, six- and 12-month Euribor rate rose today to new highs since November 2008. The 12-month Euribor rate, which is currently the most widely used in Portugal for variable-rate mortgages, rose today as set to 3.978%, plus 0.034 points, a new high since November 2008.
According to the Bank of Portugal, the 12-month Euribor already represents 43% of the “stock” of floating-rate permanent home ownership loans, while the six-month Euribor represents 32%. After jumping on 12 April 2022 to 0.005%, for the first time positive since 5 February 2016, the 12-month Euribor has been in positive territory since 21 April 2022. The average 12-month Euribor rose from 3.338% in January to 3.534% in February, plus 0.196 points.
The six-month Euribor rate, which entered positive territory on June 6, also rose today to 3.461%, 0.010 points higher than on Wednesday and a new high since November 2008. Six-month Euribor has been negative for six years and seven months (between November 6, 2015 and June 3, 2022). The six-month average Euribor rose from 2.864% in January to 3.135% in February, plus 0.271 points.
The three-month Euribor, which entered positive territory on July 14 for the first time since April 2015, rose today to 2.948%, up 0.004 points and a new high since November 2008. The months of the three-month Euribor rate was negative between April 21, 2015 and July 13 last (seven years and two months). The average Euribor quarter rose from 2.354% in January to 2.640% in February, an increase of 0.286 points.
Euribor started to rise significantly from 4 February 2022 after the European Central Bank (ECB) admitted it could raise key interest rates this year due to rising inflation in the eurozone and the trend was strengthened by the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. At the last monetary policy meeting on February 2, the ECB raised key interest rates again by 50 basis points, an increase equal to the one made on December 15, when it began to slow the pace of increases relative to with the two previously recorded, which were 75 basis points, respectively, on October 27 and September 8.
On July 21, the ECB raised its three main interest rates by 50 basis points for the first time in 11 years. Three-, six- and 12-month Euribor rates hit historic lows, respectively, of -0.605% on 14 December 2021, -0.554% and -0.518% on 20 December 2021.
Euribor is determined by the average of the interest rates at which a group of 57 banks in the eurozone are willing to lend money to each other in the interbank market.
