At the end of June 2024, loans taken by Croatian households totalled €22.98 billion, €2.26 billion or 11% more than in June 2023, according to data from the Croatian National Bank (HNB).

The majority of the loans, totalling €11.34 billion, were household loans, followed by cash loans for general purposes amounting to €8.67 billion.

In Q2 2024, lending to households grew by €0.7 billion or 3.1%, and compared to the end of Q3 2024, loans to households grew by €0.3 billion or 2.3%, while cash loans for general purposes grew by €0.4 billion or 4.6% and all other household loans by €0.1 billion or 1.9%.

Growth in lending to private households and companies accelerates

Year-on-year growth in loans to households accelerated from 10.9% at the end of March 2024 to 11.1% at the end of June 2024, driven by an increase in the annual growth rate of cash loans for general purposes from 12.9% to 14.7%, the highest year-on-year increase recorded since December 2011. The growth rate of other loans increased from 5.5% to 5.7%, while the year-on-year growth rate of housing loans slowed from 10.8% to 9.8%.

Corporate loans totalled €15.05 billion at the end of June 2024, the highest amount since February 2012, and grew by €667 million or 4.6% compared to June 2023.

In Q2 2024, lending to companies grew by € 0.5 billion or 3.5%, and compared to the end of Q2 2023, lending to companies grew by € 0.5 billion or 3.5%.

Year-on-year, growth in corporate lending accelerated from 4% at the end of March 2024 to 4.9% at the end of June. This was primarily due to the fact that growth in investment loans accelerated from 7.9% to 10.8% and growth in working capital loans rose from 6.1% to 7.8%, while the decline in other loans accelerated from -3.6 to -5.7%.