It was from July 2022 that the ECB led by Christine Lagarde began raising key interest rates to curb inflation in the Eurozone. Since then, the bank refinancing rate has increased to 4.5% - a value that has been fixed since September. This decision caused a rapid increase in Euribor rates throughout this period, generating a steep rise in the home payments of European families with variable rate (or mixed variable period) housing loans - even though Euribor is showing signs of falling after the ECB decided to keep interest rates unchanged since October.

According to a report by Idealista, these ECB interest rate hikes over the last year and a half have worsened the annual interest bill for families across Europe. However, the IMF report, published last week, reveals that this increase in the service of individuals' mortgage debt evolved unevenly between the various countries, having a particular impact on Portuguese families. Specifically, since July 2022 until now, the increase in the mortgage debt service of Portuguese families is equivalent to around 1.3% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) – the highest value among the 18 euro area countries analysed. The second country that suffers most from the ECB's interest rate hike is Finland, followed by Estonia, the data shows.

The families that appear to be least burdened by the ECB's interest rate rise live in Malta, France and Germany, where the increase in housing loan costs is close to 0% of GDP, the IMF report also indicates.