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РусскийWhat is Euribor and why your loan payment changes
If you have a mortgage or a car lease in Latvia, your contract almost certainly mentions Euribor. It is the reason the monthly payment on the same loan can be one amount this year and quite another a year later. This page explains in plain terms what Euribor is, where it comes from, why it moves and what that means for your budget.
Euribor in simple terms
Euribor (Euro Interbank Offered Rate) is the average rate at which large European banks lend euros to one another. For a borrower it works as the base of the interest rate. A typical Latvian mortgage contract reads “6-month Euribor + 2.2 %”: the 2.2 % is the bank’s margin, agreed once and fixed for the whole term, and the Euribor part is looked up every six months. If Euribor has risen since the last check, your rate and payment go up for the next six months; if it has fallen, they go down.
Five Euribor rates
Euribor is published every working day by the European Money Markets Institute (EMMI) and is based on real transactions on the money market. There is a separate rate for each term:
| Rate | How often a loan using it is usually reset | Typical use |
|---|---|---|
| 1-week Euribor | — | Short-term money market deals between banks |
| 1-month Euribor | Every month | Some business credit lines |
| 3-month Euribor | Every 3 months | Business loans, part of leasing contracts |
| 6-month Euribor | Every 6 months | Most mortgages and car leases in Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia |
| 12-month Euribor | Once a year | Mortgages in Spain, Portugal and Italy |
The current values of these rates are shown in the Euribor block on our website, updated every working day.
What makes Euribor rise or fall
Euribor follows the key interest rates of the European Central Bank. When prices in the euro area rise too fast, the ECB raises its rates to cool lending and spending, and Euribor climbs, often weeks before the decision, because banks expect it. When inflation slows, the ECB cuts rates and Euribor falls. The swings can be large: Euribor stayed below zero from 2015 to 2022, then rose to about 4 % in 2023 within little more than a year, before the ECB began lowering rates again in 2024.
Euribor and loans in Latvia
Latvia has used the euro since 2014, and Latvian banks link almost every mortgage and car lease to Euribor. Business loans and credit lines are usually variable too. Most consumer loans and fast loans from non-bank lenders, by contrast, have a fixed rate and are not affected by Euribor at all. If you are unsure what your contract says, look for the words “variable rate” or “mainīgā likme” and the name of the reference rate.
How much your payment can change
Take a mortgage of €100,000 for 25 years with a total rate of 4 %: the monthly payment is about €528. If Euribor rises by one percentage point, the payment grows by about €57; if it rises by three points, by about €179, to roughly €707. A falling Euribor works the same way in reverse. You can test your own numbers in our loan calculator.
Our advice
When choosing a variable-rate loan, compare banks by their margin: Euribor is the same for everyone, while the margin stays with you for many years. Before signing, check that you could still pay if Euribor went up by 2–3 points, and keep a reserve for that case. If stable payments matter more to you, ask about a rate fixed for several years. How property as collateral affects the price of a loan is explained in our article on credits with collateral.
Important information
Euribor is the reference rate in the 21 euro area countries, including Latvia since 2014, Lithuania since 2015 and Estonia since 2011. Countries with their own currency use national rates instead, such as STIBOR in Sweden or SARON in Switzerland. Which countries also cap the cost of consumer credit is shown in our table of loan cost caps in Europe. The calculations on this page are examples, not a forecast or financial advice.
