After months of rising interest rates and variable mortgages on the brink of sustainability, the European Central Bank's final grip on this end of 2022 is a long-awaited “Christmas present” to European citizens. This is an important step to confirm - in the very short term - the trajectory of the cost of loans towards 6%. This is what the Autonomous Federation of Italian Banks reports in an analysis. If in October the average rates were around 3.2%, when the cost of money was 2%, today some intermediaries in the market offer loans with interest rates higher than 5%. Given the increase in the cost of money from half a percentage point to 2.5%, the horizon of 6% appears closer and closer. The ECB's move does not represent a shock to consumers, who already appear to be slowing down with expenditure and penalized by inflation and low growth; however, it represents not only the pretext for making less use of credit, but also the probable cause of increasingly difficult repayments. In fact, banks will no longer only be able to take advantage of the rise in rates and expand the offer of financial products other than mortgages; the fate of those who do not have time to sign a subrogation or partially repay the existing mortgage is already marked and will add to the shadow that has been looming for months on real wages and on the already increasing installments of those who have to repay their debts. The more than fourfold cost of mortgages has, in fact, continued to intimidate families and businesses for months, and, if their financial capacity continues to be under stress, the inevitable repercussions on installments and new loans will only increase and lead to a redesign of the behavior of families and businesses, triggering a condition of unsustainability that will harm not only citizens, but the entire system.
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