Until November, households had made net withdrawals from their bank accounts nearly every month for more than a year.

Hungarian banks' retail deposit stock stood at HUF 12.139 tln at the end of December.

MNB data show households took out net HUF 29 bln of loans from lenders in December. New lending contracts included close to HUF 40 bln of prenatal baby support loans.

The government introduced the unsecured, interest-free, general-purpose prenatal baby support loans up to HUF 10 mln for families having children in the summer of 2019 along with a number of measures designed to address depopulation. The credit will be available until the end of 2024, albeit with tighter conditions and an HUF 11 mln threshold in the last year.

The retail lending stock stood at HUF 10.145 tln at the end of December. The stock included HUF 2.076 tln of prenatal baby support loans.

MNB data show the average annual percentage rate for home loans from Hungarian banks was 8.86% in December, falling from 8.99% in November. The home loan APR was down from 11.29% in December 2022.