The ease of the lending rates was pertinent both for households and corporate sector, though in some of the countries, like the Baltic States, Romania, Bulgaria and Serbia, the correction of the interest rates on loans was more pronounced at the corporate segment. Macedonia and Poland have the feature of a sharper correction at the housing segment, compared to the corporate. The magnitude of the correction along different sectors is conditioned upon many specific factors, the initial levels, the riskiness of the portfolios, for instance, and hence it is difficult to infer which banking sectors had larger “progrowth” adjustment in the interest rate policy. What is also important is the fact that the costs of financing were reduced, and the intensity of the reduction did not differ much compared to the changes of the key policy rate (highest difference of about 2 p.p. is observed for Macedonia, Serbia and Bulgaria). Thus, access to financing for both households and corporate sector was facilitated, contributing to higher propensity to borrow and underpinning economic recovery.
Analyzing the countries, only 5 countries of them, Czech Republic, Poland, Hungary, Latvia and Estonia, managed to reduce the debt in the 2015/2013 period. These countries, with the exception of Hungary are less vulnerable when it comes to the government debt as they belong to the so called "lower indebted countries". On the other side, the debt rise in the latest period additionally inflated already high levels of debt and deepened the vulnerable positions of some of the countries in the region (Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia and Albania). Chart 11: Fiscal indicators, developments in different periods of time Budget Balance, in % of GDP MKD ALB CRO BUL SRB BIH SLO CZR EST HUN LAT LIT POL ROM  40  Debt change, in p.p of GDP  35 30  4  25  2  20  0  15 10  -2  5  -4  0  -6  -5  -10  -8  100 90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 -10 -20 -30  MKD ALB CRO BUL SRB BIH SLO CZR EST HUN LAT LIT POL ROM -10 Average 2002-2007  Average 2008-2012  Average 2013-2015  Debt change 2013/2009  Debt change 2015/2013  Debt level 2015 (left scale)  Source: WEO October 2016, database. The analysis of the long-term rates on government debt reveals that after the peak of the crisis in 2009, the interest rates on government borrowing in the region have been declining.