The expert assessed the impact of lowering the key interest rate on car loans
At the meeting of the Central Bank on June 19, it continued the cycle of monetary policy easing and decided to reduce the key rate to 14.25%. As the sales manager of the eCredit platform told Izvestia (part of Auto.<url>") Nikita Margolin, this decision is in line with market expectations and shows that the regulator is responding to a moderate rate of inflation, which remains at 5-6%, and the car loan market also supports this trend.
"Thanks to the easing of credit policy and the action of preferential car loan programs, the average car loan rate for new cars has overcome the psychologically important mark of 10%. This trend makes buying more attractive, and provides a steady incentive to revive sales," Margolin explained.
According to eCredit, the average price of a new car purchased with borrowed funds in May was 2.75 million rubles, and from April to May, the average rate on car loans for new cars in Russia decreased by 0.8 percentage points (pp) to 9.9%. At the same time, the approval rate for car loan applications increased to 78%, and the average amount of a car loan reached 1.86 million rubles by the end of May.
The overall approval rate for car loan applications in the used car segment increased to 68% from April to May 2026. At the same time, the average car loan rate for a used car decreased from 21.54% to 20.4% compared to the first quarter of 2026. The average loan amount was 1.57 million rubles, and the average cost of a car was 1.9 million rubles.
Earlier, on June 16, it was reported that in May 2026, the share of refusals for car loan applications in Russia decreased by 10 percentage points (pp) relative to the end of last spring and amounted to 73.8%. Compared to April of this year, the indicator decreased by 2 percentage points. The share of refusals in car loans has been decreasing for the fourth month in a row, but is still at a high level, experts said.
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