Italians do not give up buying, but they are often forced to do it installmentseven in a context of high rates. This is what the report of First Cislwith the consumer credit which in Italy recorded significant growth in 2024. The total volume of loans paid approaches 170 billion euros, marking a increase of 5.3% compared to the previous year.
Growing taeg and the Italians indebted
A particularly significant data is theIncrease in the TAEG (annual global annual rate), which exceeded the 10%threshold. It is thus positioned clearly above the average of the euro area and the main European countries. In February 2025, the Taeg on new operations reached 10.45%, compared to 8.38% of the Eurozone average, 6.73% in France and 8.34% in Germany.
In the comparison at European level, Italy also stands out for the percentage of loans intended for credit to consumptionwhich in February reached 18.9%, well above the average of the euro area, equal to 11.1%. In this ranking, the Germany and the France They are very distant, with 9.5% and 12.7% respectively.
Among the regions that have recorded the major increases in consumer credit in the last quarter of 2024, stand out:
- Emilia-Romagna (+2.01%);
- Tuscany (+1.97%);
- Lombardy (+1.86%).
What do these data mean? That despite the fact that the Taeg continues to climb, the Italians continue to debt, bringing the overall volume of funding to touch the 170 billion euros in 2024. Many families therefore do not have enough liquidity to bear important expenses, and therefore resort to credit even in less favorable conditions.
The sale of the fifth also grows
The continuous increase of the phenomenon of the sale of the fifth salary. A form of loan that, if associated with consumption, raises concerns on a social level. From 2011 to the end of 2024, the total amount of these loans has almost doubled, passing through just over 10 billion to over 18 billion. In the last year, growth has been 1.1%.
Another factor that further strengthens the picture: many families rely on forms of financing that directly engage the future income, showing situations of structural economic fragility.
Light increase in mortgage rates
As for the mortgagesthe beginning of 2025 marks an unexpectedment of the financing conditions. After a decrease in January, in February there is an increase in the TAEG, which went from 3.5% to 3.58%, interrupting the tendency to descent of the rates that had started before the ECB changed its restrictive monetary policy starting from last June.
Even at European level it is not an isolated case: in the euro area, the descent of the Taeg continued until January and then reverse the trend in February, going from 3.41% to 3.61%. A similar trend was found in France (from 3.67% to 3.68%) and in Germany (from 3.56% to 3.63%).
At the regional level, the greatest difficulties are recorded in the South, with the Sicily which presents the highest rate (0.352%), followed by Campania (0.349%) and from Calabria (0.328%).
