Consumer finance makes up 15% of GDP

The appetite for consumer loans puts Romania second in the region in terms of the share of this type of financing in last year’s GDP, but at the same time the country is a laggard in terms of its penetration rate of corporate lending, a survey by UniCredit group reveals. With consumer lending accounting for almost 15% of GDP, the market of such loans taken out by Romanians exceeds those of the more developed countries in the region such as Turkey, Czech Republic and Poland. Moreover, corporate lending stood at merely 18% of GDP last year compared with 52% in Germany and 29% in Hungary. The UniCredit survey takes into account personal loans, car loans, overdrafts and revolving credit cards. Croatia alone registers a higher penetration rate of consumer lending, 23.5% of GDP. The situation in Romania was largely caused by the market’s attempts to go around the red tape involved in getting a mortgage loan, so that part of such loans were granted as home equity loans.