Wall Street falls in wake of presidential debate and core inflation above expectations – Markets in a minute

Euribor falls again in six and 12 months to lows of more than a year and a half

The Euribor rate rose today to three months and fell again, for the third consecutive day, to six and 12 months to new lows since March 29, 2023 and December 15, 2022, respectively.

With today’s changes, the three-month rate, which rose to 3.467%, remained above the six-month rate (3.276%) and the 12-month rate (2.960%).

The six-month Euribor rate, which in January became the most widely used in Portugal for variable-rate housing loans and which was above 4% between September 14 and December 1, 2023, fell today to 3.276%, a new low since March 29, 2023 and minus 0.017 points, after reaching 4.143% on October 18 of last year, a high since November 2008.

Data from the Bank of Portugal (BdP) for July indicate that the six-month Euribor is the most widely used, representing 37.1% of the stock of loans for permanent homeownership with variable rates. The same data indicate that the 12-month and three-month Euribor represented 34.2% and 25.4%, respectively.

In the 12-month period, the Euribor rate, which was above 4% between June 16 and November 29, also fell today, to 2.960%, a minimum since December 15, 2022 and minus 0.010 points, against the maximum since November 2008, of 4.228%, recorded on September 29, 2023.

In the opposite direction, the three-month Euribor advanced today, being fixed at 3.467%, up 0.007 points, after having risen to 4.002% on October 19, 2023, a maximum since November 2008.

On July 18, the ECB maintained its key interest rates and ECB President Christine Lagarde did not clarify what will happen at the next meeting on September 12, stating that everything depends on the data that, in the meantime, becomes known.

At its previous meeting in June, the ECB had cut key interest rates by 25 basis points, after having kept them at their highest level since 2001 for five meetings and having made 10 increases since 21 July 2022.

Analysts expect Euribor rates to reach around 3% by the end of the year.

The Euribor average in August fell again at three, six and 12 months, but more sharply in the longer term, having fallen 0.137 points to 3.548% at three months (against 3.685% in July), 0.219 points to 3.425% at six months (against 3.644%) and 0.360 points to 3.166% at 12 months (against 3.526%).

Euribor is set by the average of the rates at which a group of 19 eurozone banks are willing to lend money to each other on the interbank market.