Michael McGrath (Cork South Central, Fianna Fail) | Oireachtas source

The Deputy's question is about interest rates facing SMEs. The changes in the interest rates being paid by SMEs were directly linked to the monetary policy environment, the ten successive interest rate increases we had from the ECB which worked their way through the system, in particular in respect of floating rate charges, variable rate loan products and then when it came to the re-pricing of fixed interest rate products by the commercial banks but also by the non-banks. I do not have further information on the early part of 2024 but I think that trend is likely to have continued. You would expect that by that stage, the interest rate increases would have fully worked their way through the system. We are now at a point where we expect that there will be movement in the other direction in monetary policy and interest rate decisions by the ECB including quite possibly in June in terms of the monetary policy committee meeting of the governing council. I would expect that, in the way that interest rates being charged to SMEs changed in line with increases in the ECB rate, the reverse will happen as rates begin to come down at the wholesale level.

See this speech in context