Citizen in Serbia 16 times less indebted than in EU

BELGRADE - The average indebtedness of a Serbian citizen stands at EUR 750, which is around 16 times less than the average indebtedness per EU citizen and five times less than in Croatia, said Veroljib Dugalic, secretary general of the Association of Serbian Banks.

According to the data that Dugalic presented at the 14th Economic Summit in Belgrade on Monday, the average loan debt in the EU stands at EUR 12,000 per capita and around EUR 4,000 in Croatia.

“Our loans are not expensive, it is rather that our standard is low. Our average salary stands between EUR 350-370, and there is no affordable loan with such incomes,” Dugalic said.

Commenting on the interest rates in Serbia, he said that it is impossible that they could be the same as in Austria, Germany or Croatia mostly because of high reference interest rate, high share of non-performing loans and mandatory reserves.

Although the reference interest rate has been reduced to 8.5 percent, it is much higher than the reference interest rate in Slovakia, which stands at 0.25 percent, or in the EU, where it amounts to 0.15 percent, Dugalic said.

Commenting on non-performing loans, he said that their share in the overall commercial loans stands at 28.2 percent and in the personal loans 9.1 percent.

“This is one of the worst indicators in Europe, since every third loan is not repaid, and the banks provide for 100 percent mandatory reserves, which is a major spending,” Dugalic said.

Screenshot Tanjug video (Archive)