The number of Hungarian borrowers behind on loan repayments rose 26.2pc in Q1-Q3, but inched down 0.3pc in Q3 to reach 1,677,000 at the end of September, or 27.7pc of all lending contracts, a report by financial market regulator PSZAF shows.
About 27.2pc of all retail borrowers were behind on loan repayments, including 16.7pc of borrowers with mortgage loans.
About 690,000 borrowers were more than 90 days late with loan repayments at the end of September, including 641,000 retail borrowers and 27,000 SMEs.
Hungarian borrowers owed banks HUF 20,263bn at the end of September, down 3.1pc from the end of 2008.
Wow, close to 7% of the country having difficulty paying back loans!
This does not sound too stable. Someone remind me what % of the US population it took to initiate the last global economic crisis triggered by loan defaults?
Don’t get me wrong, Hungary won’t trigger a global crisis but it certainly doesn’t look good from a national perspective.
At least a third of the people we know here have problems with their loans, often other family members (usually the parents and grandparents who are used to a simple life and spend wisely) have to help.
Sometimes it’s a temporary crisis, right now for example many people are out of their second (weekend) job in construction or in the tourist business, working as a waiter or masseuse …
We helped some over Christmas, though we told them not to make a habit out of it …
On the other hand there is a (very) small minority who seem to be able to spend ridiculous amounts of money, a kind of mafia, it seems to me …