Consumer credit has been recovering in Portugal since lock down restrictions have been eased with credit growing from €299.3 million in May to €420.3 million in June, this is still however 26.4 percent less than a year ago.

While other credit sectors are struggling to recover quickly, car credit has been bucking the trend according to data from Banco de Portugal.
Following a significant drop in March and April, months in which consumer credit reached its lowest levels for the past seven years, banks and finance companies are gradually giving more credit to the Portuguese, mainly for the acquisition of a car.

Consumer credit increased by around €120 million from May to June and most of that increase was due to car loans (€87 million more). In total, new consumer credit for car purchases reached €221 million in June (€134 million in May).

Compared to the same month last year, the volume of car loans is only 2.2 percent below the 2019 levels with car loans representing 52.5 percent of total consumer credit granted in Portugal in June.