Graphs & DataBusiness sector debt declined by about 0.5 percent to around NIS 821 billion in March. Household debt increased by about NIS 3.3 billion (0.8 percent) to around NIS 443 billion at the end of the month.
The business sector’s outstanding debt
- The total outstanding debt of the business sector declined by about NIS 3.8 billion (0.5 percent) to around NIS 821 billion in March. The decline derived from net repayments of bank loans, tradable and nontradable bonds, and credit from abroad. The only channel in which debt was raised was in loans from institutional investors.
- In April, the business sector (excluding banks and insurance companies) issued about NIS 1.1 billion in bonds, mostly tradable bonds—lower than the average amount of issuances in the first quarter (NIS 3.2 billion).
Table 1: The Composition of Business Sector Debt
Figure 1: Rate of Change (Year on Year) in the Business Sector's Bank and Nonbank Debt
Table 2: Debt by Indexation
Figure 2: Business Sector Bond Issuance
Household debt
- Households’ outstanding debt increased by about NIS 3.3 billion (0.8 percent), to about NIS 443 billion, in March. Of that, the balance of outstanding housing debt has remained virtually unchanged since the beginning of the year, at about NIS 304 billion.
- In April, there was a decline, partly seasonal, in new mortgages taken out, which totaled about NIS 4.7 billion. The average since the beginning of the year is about NIS 4.9 billion (see Figure 3).
Table 3: Outstanding Debt Balances of Households
Figure 3: Total Housing Credit from Banks, According to Indexation: New Mortgage Volume
The cost of the debt
- In the CPI-indexed track, the spread between the interest rate on new bank credit granted and the interest rate on deposits widened by about 0.09 percentage points in March, compared with the previous month, mainly as a result of an increase in the interest on marginal indexed deposits.
- In April, the average spread between the yield on CPI-indexed corporate bonds—measured by the Tel Bond 60—and the yields on CPI-indexed government bonds narrowed to about 1.63 percentage points.
- In April, the average interest rate on new unindexed mortgages (variable-rate interest) declined by about 0.03 percentage points. The average interest rate on new CPI-indexed mortgages (fixed interest) also declined by about 0.05 percentage points.
Table 4: The Cost of the Debt
Figure 4 : Spread between Indexed Corporate Bonds (Tel-Bond 60) and Indexed Government Bonds (monthly average)
Figure 5 : New Housing Loans from Banks – Interest Rates in the Unindexed Sector
Figure 6 : New Housing Loans from Banks – Interest Rates in the CPI-indexed Sector
