Speaking at the Coface 2014 country risk conference Wednesday, Dumitru said Romania has the second-highest household debt service ratio in Europe, after Cyprus.
“The indebtedness level of low-income households is rather high in Romania. The debt service ratio in that particular segment exceeds 60%,” he said, adding that companies do not lag far behind.
“The bank indebtedness level can be increased, but with one condition: we have to raise the capital ratios. What Romanian companies are lacking is capital, not indebtedness.”
Raiffeisen Bank’s chief economist said 5% of the local companies use insolvency proceedings to deal with their debt, well above the European average of 0.5%.
“This hinders the access to new financing,” Dumitru said.