BRATISLAVA, May 10, (WEBNOVINY) — In the past few years, bank loans have become a common part of lives of Slovaks, who currently owe banks several times more than ten year ago. Postova Banka further reported that at the end of last year, the volume of consumer loans attacked the level of EUR 1.8 billion, which is nearly 17-times more than ten years ago. Housing loans experienced the same trend, when their volume exceeded EUR 10 billion, which is ten-fold the volume a decade ago.
Considering consumer loans, the debt of an average economically active Slovak against a bank was close to EUR 666, whereas ten years ago it was EUR 40, stated Postova Banka’s analyst Eva Sadovska. As far as housing loans are concerned, the average volume represents EUR 3,748, compared to EUR 370 a decade ago. At the beginning of the millennium, it took as much as three weeks to arrange for a loan from the first visit to the bank, now it is sometimes just two to three days.
Behind the growing demand for loans is decreasing unemployment, growing gross domestic product, and higher demand for consumer goods and housing, as well as new offer of banks from the start of the millennium. The crisis, during which Slovak economy sank into recession and steep increase of unemployment made clients more cautious. Banks took on a more cautious approach to providing loans, too. The year 2010 was marked by a rebound on the lending market. Last year, Slovaks borrowed more money than in the crisis year 2009, but also more than before the crisis.
SITA