Argentina Defies the Odds: Unlikely Revival Breathes New Life into Struggling Loan Market

Argentina Defies the Odds: Unlikely Revival Breathes New Life into Struggling Loan Market

He Central Bank of the Argentine Republic (BCRA) published his Monthly monetary reportin which he revealed that loans in the country continue to recover stronglye.

Specifically, in September, Loans in pesos to the private sector increased around $4 billion, which represents a monthly growth of 7.7% at constant prices and without seasonality. In this way, they accumulate six consecutive months of increment and they are, in real terms, almost 60% above the minimum recorded in January 2024.

“The growth in loans extended to all credit lines, just like in July. To find a period with these characteristics, you have to go back to the end of 2017”explained the BCRA.

In the ninth month of the year, the performance of personal and mortgage loans that grew at double-digit monthly rates. In terms of gross domestic product, credit to the private sector reached a 5.9% ratioaccumulating an increase of 1.5 percentage points in the last five months.

In the report, it was explained that the month’s growth was largely driven by commercial loans, which together showed a real increase of 7.3% without seasonally adjusting and represented approximately half of the monthly growth. Within these loans, The credits implemented through documents stood outwhich grew 8.8% monthly in real terms and are 13.1% above the level recorded a year ago. Both single-signature documents and discounted documents showed a favorable evolution during the month. For their part, advances registered a monthly increase of 4.3% in September and a year-on-year increase of 17.3%.

In addition, Consumer credit continued to expand in September and showed an improvement of 7.6% monthly at constant prices and 12% year-on-year. Meanwhile, personal loans increased 13.8% compared to August, resulting in the most dynamic line in the month, with a year-on-year growth of 38.1%. For its part, credit card financing moderated its pace of expansion, growing by 4.1% in September at constant prices. In this way, they are at a level similar to that of September 2023, prior to the fall that began at the end of that year.

According to the BCRA, collateralized loans also showed good performancedriven by the mortgage loanswhich showed a real monthly increase of 14.2% without seasonally adjusting, the largest expansion in the last 22 years.

Although the stock of mortgage loans remains 39.4% below its level from a year ago, the evolution in recent months is being driven by the granting of adjustable loans by UVA, which have a growing weight in the total amount of mortgage loans granted. In particular, during September, The granting of new loans for housing practically doubled and this growth was explained almost entirely by the granting of loans in UVA. For their part, pledges grew 8.8% in real terms in the month, although they fell 3.3% year-on-year, in line with the increase in automobile registrations.

Leave a Replay