(Finance) – The Bank of Italy has communicated that it considers the ratio of the countercyclical capital buffer (countercyclical capital buffer, CCyB) in effect for the current quarter, equal to zero percent, “appropriate to the current macro-financial environment”. In the first quarter of 2022, the credit-to-GDP ratio declined. The deviation from the long-term trend of the ratio between total credit and GDP (credit-to-GDP gap) was negative by about seven percentage points if calculated on the basis of the methodology developed by the Bank of Italy.
Similar indications come from the relationship between bank credit and GDP. The other indicators show a macro-financial condition of the Italian economy essentially unchanged. The growth in bank loans to households continues, mainly attributable to the trend in mortgages, accompanied by a more contained increase in credit to non-financial companies.
ThereThe incidence of non-performing loans remained stable, at historically low levels, for both business and household loans; the unemployment rate, which has fallen slightly due to the decrease in job seekers following the increase in employment, is confirmed below the level prior to the pandemic; real house prices remained broadly unchanged.