The increase in Crimean savings last year was the highest in the last three years.

The lending activity of Crimeans last year was also at an increased level. In 2023, residents of the region received 118.4 billion rubles in loans from banks. This is 1.6 times more than in 2022. One of the reasons is a twofold increase in the issuance of mortgage housing loans. During the year, they were provided in the amount of 32.7 billion rubles, and the number of transactions was almost 1.8 times higher than in 2022.

Such a high demand for mortgages in the second half of the year is primarily due to the desire of Crimeans to have time to obtain a loan before the terms of preferential lending are revised, in particular, before the amount of the down payment is increased. I would like to note that in December the average interest rate on residential mortgage loans in the region was quite low — 7.3% per annum. This is due to the high share of soft loans in the total volume of loans issued,” explains Igor Tsvetkov, Head of the Bank of Russia Branch for the Republic of Crimea.

The volume of consumer loans issued in 2023 compared to 2022 increased 1.4 times and amounted to 85.7 billion rubles.

In general, the loan portfolio of Crimean residents at the beginning of 2024 exceeded 135 billion rubles, which is almost 35% more than at the same date last year. In particular, the portfolio of mortgage housing loans amounted to 69.5 billion rubles, showing an increase of 46.4%, consumer loans – 65.5 billion rubles, which is 24.4% more than on January 1, 2023.