One in five individuals with outstanding loans has fallen behind with their payments, according to Romania’s central bank data. The number of people with overdue loans increased by about 70,000 compared with July 2014.
The number of people with overdue loans reached a two-year high in July, after peaking at more than 740,000 in November 2012.
The increase in the number of people with overdue loans comes at a time of significant economic growth, rising wages and lower borrowing costs, when loan interests are at all-time lows.
“The increase in the number of people with overdue loans may be due to circumstance. We do have economic recovery, but we’ve also had a rather significant consumer spending growth, people went on vacation,” explains economic analyst Aurelian Dochia.
“Many of them chose to pay for their vacations instead of their loan installments. Such factors may be among those that contributed to the high number of overdue loans and people with overdue loans.”
The number of individuals with outstanding bank loans stood at 3.5 million at the end of last year, 600,000 fewer than in December 2008, at the onset of the crisis, according to the latest data of Romania’s central bank. The number of those with outstanding loans accounts for one third of the total employees and retirees in the country, about 10 million. Out of the total debtors, 3.2 million took out leu-denominated loans, while 430,000 took out euro-denominated loans.
The number of people with overdue loans has fluctuated around 710,000 this year, reaching a low of 698,000 in May and rising ever since.
There were 956,000 overdue loans at the end of July, about 100,000 more than in the corresponding period of last year.
(English version by Loredana Fratila-Cristescu)