WILLEMSTAD – Banks in Curaçao increased mortgage and consumer lending during the first four months of 2026, while loans to businesses declined, according to new figures from the Centrale Bank van Curaçao en Sint Maarten (CBCS).
Private-sector credit in Curaçao increased by 1.0 percent through April 2026.
The composition of that lending, however, shows sharply different developments between households and businesses.
Mortgage lending increased by 3.8 percent, while consumer loans rose by 0.4 percent.
Business lending, in contrast, decreased by 2.1 percent. Other loans fell by 12.4 percent.
The figures are noteworthy at a time when private investment is expected to be one of the principal drivers of Curaçao's economy.
The CBCS forecasts real economic growth of 2.8 percent in 2026, supported in part by private investment in residential construction and tourism-related projects.
For 2027, private demand is again expected to be a major growth driver.
The decline in business lending through April does not by itself indicate that business investment is contracting. Companies can finance investments through retained earnings, foreign investment or other financing channels.
However, the divergence between rising mortgage lending and declining business loans provides an important indication of where commercial bank credit was moving during the opening months of the year.
Across the Curaçao-Sint Maarten monetary union, private credit was up 9.5 percent year-on-year in April.
The CBCS cautions that the unusually strong annual increase largely reflects the merger of a commercial bank with a secondary financial institution. That transaction incorporated the institution's existing credit portfolio into the commercial banking figures and therefore increased the recorded level of domestic credit from July 2025 onward.
The underlying Curaçao figures consequently provide a more nuanced picture: households were borrowing more for homes, while lending to businesses had declined during the first four months of 2026.