Paying installments for Romanians who have loans with variable interest rates is becoming an increasing source of financial stress. After many crises after crises embodied in monetary policy with high interest rates, people have to pay twice what they took out of their pockets last year for the same loan.

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In Romania, the key interest rate has been raised 11 times over the past two years – eight of them in 2022.

There was also a rise after a rise at the European level, where the cost of credit in euros is historically high. This is after the European Central Bank has consistently raised EURIBOR, the index that determines variable interest rates in euros.

If this index was negative in July 2022, it increased by 4.5 percentage points in one and a half years. (reference rate – 4%). For example, a rate of 220 euros in 2022 ended at 360 euros in 2023. This is a 60% year-over-year increase.

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