Interest rate hike link to mental illness found, but Spain enjoys more historic lows
Monday, April 30, 2018 @ 3:26 PM
RISING interest rates increases the risk of mental illness and aggravates existing conditions, according to the University of Sterling in Scotland.
Those already struggling to make ends meet have to fight even harder to pay their bills, and those in debt find themselves sinking further, researchers in the northern UK region, assisted by Nottingham University (England) have found.
Their study was based upon uncertainty as to whether the Bank of England plans to increase interest rates in May or maintain them at the current 0.5%.
Luckily for those with mortgages and loans in Spain, interest rates will not create negative effects on mental health for the foreseeable future: the Euribor is set to close April on yet another historic low, of -0.19%.
Variable-rate mortgages in Spain are only reviewed once a year, which takes a lot of the insecurity out of them and gives homeowners plenty of time to plan if the Eurozone interest rate shows signs of rising – this, and the high fees associated with fixed-rate mortgages, being the main reason that an overwhelming majority of home loans are variable-rate versions, at the customer's request.
Now that interest rates in the countries using the common currency have been in negative figures for two years and two months, little margin exists for mortgage repayments to fall, but the difference between rates expected for the end of April 2018 and the same date a year ago – when the Euribor fell to -0.119% - is still a saving of €38.16 on the average home loan.
Read more at thinkSPAIN.com