The expert assessed the impact of lowering the key interest rate on car loans

Another reduction in the key rate by 0.5% indicates that the peak of inflationary pressure, according to the Bank of Russia, has passed. However, the risks of a new price increase remain, so the steps remain cautious. Such restraint prevents the car loan market from fully "reviving" and returning to active growth, the head of sales of the eCredit platform (part of Auto.<url>") Nikita Margolin.

According to eCredit, from January to March 2026, the average rate on car loans for new cars in Russia decreased by 0.4 percentage points (pp) to 10.7%, while the average price of a new car remained virtually unchanged at 2.76 million rubles. At the same time, the approval rate for car loan applications increased to 74%. And the average amount of a car loan decreased to 1.86 million rubles (-1% in March compared to February).

In the segment of used cars, the overall approval rate for car loan applications increased to 63% in the first quarter of this year. The average car loan rate for a used car in March was 21.54% (almost 1.5 percentage points less than in the fourth quarter of last year). At the same time, the average loan amount increased by 5.4%, to 1.55 million rubles, and the average cost of a car increased by 4.6%, to 1.91 million rubles.

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On April 24, the Board of Directors of the Central Bank of the Russian Federation decided to reduce the key rate to 14.5% per annum.

Prior to that, the Central Bank lowered the key rate on March 20, then it was lowered to 15% per annum. Later, on April 24, Alexander Shokhin, the head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), said that the Central Bank needed to reduce the key rate to 14%.