The year 2023 is marked by a significant slowdown in the growth rate of loans outstanding to the economy, from 7.7% in 2022 to 2.7% in 2023. This slowdown concerns both loans to enterprises (-6.2 percentage points) and loans to individuals (-1.7 percentage points).
The analysis of the evolution of loans by category of counterpart shows a slowdown in the outstanding amount of loans to professionals, in particular those granted to private companies (+1,069 MTD in 2023 compared with +5,645 MTD in 2022).
This deceleration is due in particular to the slowdown in commercial discounting (+1.1% in 2023 compared with +23.4% in 2022) and the fall in overdrafts (-1.1% in 2023 compared with +14.4% a year earlier), as well as the virtual absence of new medium and long-term loans (+0.2% in 2023 compared with -1.5% in 2022), linked to the slowdown in economic activity recorded in 2023.
The slowdown in loans to enterprises and public authorities was less pronounced, due to the slowdown in loans to public enterprises, which increased by 7.9% in 2023 compared with 28.7% in 2022, and to the increase of 8.9% in loans to public authorities, following a fall of more than 36% in 2022 as a result of repayments by the Treasury of syndicated loans denominated in foreign currency.
The sectoral distribution of outstanding loans to enterprises remains almost unchanged, with 52.3% of loans to services and 43.1% to industry. Agriculture and fishing account for only 4.6% of loans to professionals.
In 2023, the indebtedness of individuals to the banking sector totaled 28,721 MTD compared to 27,876 MTD the previous year, an increase of 3.0% compared to 4.7% in 2022.
This deceleration can be explained both by the slowdown in consumer credit (+2.8% compared with +4.7% in 2022), which mainly affects loans for home improvements (+1.3% compared with +3.1% in 2022), and by the slowdown in housing loans (+3.3% compared with +4.6% in 2022).
In addition, the share of loans to individuals in total credit to the economy stabilized at 24.9% at the end of 2023, after declining in the previous two years. Its share in GDP fell from 20.1% in 2022 to 19.2% in 2023.
