Citizens now owe an average of 1,650 euros to banks.
Only two years ago, the citizens of Serbia were indebted about a thousand euros on average, and they now owe an average of 1,650 euros to banks. According to the user of the bank account, allegedly about two thousand euros.
This is due to low interest rates, rising standards, and higher wages. According to the Association of Serbian Banks (UBS), citizens are currently repaying as many as 145,290 housing loans. The average amount of a housing loan is 3.7 million dinars, which is about 31,000 euros. The delay in their repayment is 0.9 percent. In two years, the credit growth of housing loans is 16.8 percent.
The fact that the average amount of a housing loan is 31,000 euros indicates that the citizens were careful and did not borrow large sums for a roof over their heads. Caution is understandable, because it is an obligation for 20 and often 30 years. The credit boom was not only recorded in housing loans, but also in cash loans. In one year, the citizens took them in the value of as much as 500 million euros.
Our citizens are among the least indebted in the region, and here we compare ourselves with the countries of the former great state. Data from the central banks there show that the most indebted are Slovenians who owe about 5,500 euros, followed by Croats with more than 4,400 euros, and Montenegrins with about 2,400.
The higher the salary, the higher the debts, because the citizens of those countries where the average salaries are low are at the back of their debts. Thus, in BiH they owe about 1,600 euros, and Macedonians 1,500.
Ljubodrag Savić, professor at the Faculty of Economics in Belgrade, says that the data on the average indebtedness of all citizens with banks is not relevant, it does not show the real situation, but that it is much more important how much only those citizens who take loans, credit cards and allowed minuses owe. And that data is completely different and many times bigger.
The fact that people take more loans can be interpreted twice. On the one hand, our standard is growing so that people estimate that now is the right time to solve the housing issue. We should not ignore the fact that the price of apartments is never higher. The number of loans was taken precisely to repay large debts, and these are refinancing loans. We cannot conclude that Serbia is doing better now, a large number of loans are taken out of extortion. “We live in uncertain times, which we see in the international situation because of Ukraine, in a market economy where there is no job security,” Savic said.
Zoran Grubišić, a professor at the Belgrade Banking Academy, says that this much borrowing of the population is not dangerous.
The trend is expected and appropriate for the economic growth of recent years. Measured and according to the indebtedness of our neighbors, we cannot say that our citizens have reached for more loans than them, namely Croatia, BiH. Loans support consumption and economic growth. Until a few years ago In the total mass of loans to households, the largest share was held by cash loans, higher than housing loans. “, Grubisic notes.
The National Bank realized a few years ago that the growth of household indebtedness can be dangerous, and it reacted by shortening the deadline for repaying cash loans. They can now be repaid only for six years, provided that the total credit burden cannot exceed 60 percent of earnings, and in the case of lower incomes, 40 percent, Mondo writes.
