Retail Interest Rates - May 2026

Interest rates and new business volumes are collected from credit institutions with significant levels of lending or deposit business with households or non-financial corporations. These harmonised statistics are used for the analysis of monetary developments, and the monetary transmission mechanism as well as for the monitoring of financial stability. Monthly interest rate statistics cover all euro-denominated agreements with euro-area households and NFCs, while quarterly interest rate statistics cover mortgage drawdowns in the Republic of Ireland, broken down by interest rate type.

Table 1: Retail Interest Rates Key Statistics

Source: Retail Interest Rates Table B.1.1, Table B.2.1, ECB Data Portal

Household Lending Interest Rates

• The weighted average interest rate on new Irish mortgage agreements¹ fell to 3.48 per cent in May 2026, down 2 basis points from April and 13 basis points year-on-year.
• This average rate matched the euro area average for the first time since March 2023 (Table 1), having exceeded it since then.
• Irish mortgage rates moved to 12th highest in the euro area, down from 10th place in April.

The weighted average interest rate on new Irish mortgage agreements was 3.48% at end-May, down to 12th highest in the euro area

Chart 1: Rank of weighted average interest rate on new mortgage agreements by euro area country

• New fixed rate mortgage agreements had a weighted average interest rate of 3.44 per cent in May, down 1 basis points from the previous month and down 6 basis points year-on-year. Fixed rate lending reached 93 per cent of total new mortgage lending, the highest proportion since February 2023 and up from 84% in May 2025.
• The weighted average interest rate on new variable rate mortgage agreements was 4.03 per cent in May, down 10 basis points down from April and 12 basis points year-on-year.
• The total volume of new mortgage agreements  increased to €953 million in May, up €10 million or 1 per cent year-on-year (Chart 2).
• Renegotiated mortgages totalled €505 million in May, €44 million higher than the previous month and €213 million higher than in May 2025.
• Ninety-five per cent of the volume of mortgage renegotiations in May had fixed interest rates, the highest share since March 2023. The weighted average interest rate was 3.25 per cent, 3 basis points down from the previous month and 25 basis points lower year-on-year.

The interest rate on new floating rate mortgages exceeded that of new fixed rate mortgages by 59 basis points at end-May 2026

Chart 2: Weighted average interest rate and volume, pure new mortgage lending

Source: Retail Interest Rates Table B.2.1

• Regarding non-mortgage lending, the weighted average interest rate on new consumer loan agreements increased by 17 basis points to 7.25 per cent in May 2026. The total volume of new consumer loans was €270 million in May, 73 per cent of which had a floating rate. New floating rate consumer loans had a weighted average interest rate of 7.97 per cent at end-May, while new fixed rate consumer loans had a weighted average interest rate of 5.33 per cent.

Source: Retail Interest Rates Table B.2.1

Household and Non-Financial Corporation Deposit Rates

• The weighted average interest rate on household overnight deposits stood at 0.14 per, unchanged since January 2026. The weighted average interest rate on new household deposits with agreed maturity decreased to 1.81 per cent in May, down 4 basis points from April and 16 basis points year-on-year (Chart 4). The level of new business in this category was €1.4 billion, 9 per cent lower than in April but 2 per cent higher year-on-year.

The weighted average interest rate on new Irish household term deposits fell to 13th in the euro area (1.81%)

Chart 4: Rank of country and euro area average interest rates, new household deposits with agreed maturity

Source: Retail Interest Rates Table B.1.1, Table B.2.1, ECB Data Portal

• In May 2026, the euro area average exceeded the weighted average term deposit rate in Ireland by 15 basis points—the largest gap since September 2024.

The weighted average interest rate on new household term deposits was 1.81% at end-May, the lowest level since April 2023

Chart 5: Weighted average interest rate and volume, new household deposits with agreed maturity

Select Category Rates Volumes

6m 1y 2y 3y 5y All

Source: Retail Interest Rates Table B.2.1

• The weighted average interest rate on NFC overnight deposits was 0.10 per cent at end-May, a monthly increase of 1 basis point, while the weighted average interest rate on new Irish NFC deposits with agreed maturity was 1.69, a monthly increase of 3 basis points.

Explanatory Note - Retail Interest Rates Publication

Note 1

Interest rates and new business volumes are collected from credit institutions with a significant level of lending or deposit business with households or non-financial corporations (NFCs). The sample is monitored to ensure compliance with ECB Regulation.

Monthly Retail Interest Rate Statistics in Tables B.1.1 to B.2.2 cover all euro-denominated lending to, and deposits from, households and NFCs in the euro area. New business is defined as any new agreement during the month between the customer and the credit institution. This agreement covers all financial contracts that specify the interest rate for the first time, including any renegotiation of existing business (excluding automatic renewals). These statistics are compiled under ECB Regulation and are comparable across the euro area.

Quarterly Retail Interest Rate Statistics in Table B.3.1 cover all euro and non-euro denominated mortgage lending in the Republic of Ireland only. New business refers to new mortgage lending drawdowns during the quarter, broken down by type of interest rate (i.e. fixed, tracker and SVR). These statistics are not compiled under ECB MFI interest rate Regulation.

Note 2

There are a number of factors that can lead to differences between Retail Interest Rate statistics and interest rates advertised by resident credit institutions. These include renegotiated loans, the inclusion of home improvement loans, and the underlying statistical compilation methodology.

Note 3

The retail interest rate statistics are compiled using a sampling method as outlined in the relevant ECB Regulation and Guideline. The sampling methodology is refined and enhanced over time to maintain alignment with relevant international standards and maintain a quality sampling approach. In such situations, revised methodology will be applied to historic data to ensure a consistent and coherent compilation of data across time and to allow for time series analysis. The period of revisions will be determined by the impact, feasibility and cost of undertaking the revision. Occasions when methodological revision have occurred are:

Enhancements to the calculation of the national weighted average interest rates and national total business volumes have been introduced in ECB Guideline (ECB/2014/15) on monetary and financial statistics. These enhancements introduced in the Guideline involve changes to the sampling methods. The changes made contribute to a further harmonization of the data compilation process thus improving cross-country data comparison. The changes apply for reference period December 2014. As a result of these enhancements, data have been recalculated, as per the requirements of Guideline ECB/2014/15, for previous reference periods.

Changes applied to reduce the maximum grossing factor used in estimating total population data. The changes reduce the potential volatility caused by irregular high grossing factors. The impact of the change is largely confined to new business loans to NFCs, with some minor changes to new business consumer loans. The changes apply from reference period April 2021. Data for previous reporting periods have been recalculated back to February 2019. Recent data is often provisional and may be subject to revision.

For further detail, please see the Retail Interest Rates webpage for:

• An extensive set of Retail Interest Rate Tables;
• Retail Interest Rate Statistics Explanatory Note;
• Previous Interest Rate Statistical Releases can be found here.

Note 4

Statistical classification of sole proprietors

In line with their treatment in ESA 2010, the Central Bank has harmonised the treatment of sole proprietors as reported by reporting agents across various datasets. This has resulted in a movement of loans and deposits from the NFC to the Household sector. These amendments were made in February 2022 with respect to reference data from February 2021.

Specifically, these changes result in an increase in loan and deposit volume amounts reported vis-à-vis the household sector, and a decline in balances reported vis-à-vis the NFC sector. This applies to both outstanding and new lending volumes in Tables B.1.2 and Table B.2.1. For lending rates, this change means that both the aggregate interest rates on NFC loan agreements and on non-mortgage household loans has slightly reduced. The reason for this is that, in general, loans to sole proprietors typically attract a higher average interest rate than NFC loans, and therefore excluding them from the NFC category results in a slight reduction in the aggregated NFC interest rate.

Additionally, the interest rate on loans to sole proprietors is typically lower than the average interest rate on non-mortgage household loans, and therefore including them results in a reduction in the aggregated interest rate on household loans ‘for other purposes’ in Table B.2.1, and on household ‘consumer loans and other loans’ in Table B.1.2.

Treatment of securitised loans

As a result of an update to the ECB Regulation on the balance sheet items of credit institutions and of the monetary financial institutions sector (recast) (ECB/2021/2), there have been changes to how certain securitised loans are required to be classified for the purposes of statistical reporting. The following treatment, allowed under the previous Regulation ECB/2013/33, is no longer permitted: ‘MFIs […] may be allowed by their NCB to exclude from the stocks […] any loans disposed of by means of a securitisation in accordance with national practice […]’. The removal of this derogation from the updated Regulation ECB/2021/2 results in an increase in the reported volume of outstanding house purchase loans in Table B.1.2.

 

 

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1. Mortgage rates and volumes quoted on this page exclude renegotiations unless otherwise stated.↩︎

Related Data Sets

The below Retail Interest Rate tables are also available on the Central Bank of Ireland's Open Data Portal.

Explore Retail Interest Rates in Open Data Format