The Austrian National Bank (OeNB) published Austria’s results from the euro area Bank Lending Survey for the fourth quarter of 2025, showing that corporate loan demand rose in both the third and fourth quarters of 2025, ending a decline that had persisted since the third quarter of 2022. Household demand for housing loans has been increasing continuously since the first half of 2024, and participating banks expect both corporate and housing credit demand to increase further in the first quarter of 2026. The rebound in corporate loan demand was linked to lower interest rates, higher financing needs for inventories and working capital, and early signs of recovering investment activity, while demand continued to fall in the second half of 2025 for energy-intensive industrial firms and for automotive companies including suppliers. On the supply side, banks’ risk assessments and concerns about borrowers’ creditworthiness have driven tighter lending policies since early 2022, with higher credit standards particularly affecting real estate firms, especially commercial real estate companies. For housing loans, lower rates following the European Central Bank’s policy rate cuts from 4% to 2% between June 2024 and June 2025 coincided with higher new lending, with OeNB credit statistics showing average new housing lending of EUR 1.4bn per month from January to November 2025, almost 50% above the 2024 annual average. The survey was conducted from mid-December 2025 to mid-January 2026. The OeNB noted that its monetary statistics in the coming months will show the extent to which higher corporate loan demand translates into increased new lending.

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