Banks lent a total of €6.53 billion to Slovaks in 2013 in the form of new loans. According to an analysis conducted by Poštová Banka, the volume of newly-dispensed loans represents a year-on-year rise of 23.4 percent.
When it came to new consumer loans, banks lent a total of €1.56 billion to retail clients; amounting to a rise of more than 17 percent year-on-year. The bank’s analyst Eva Sadovská says that the average debt per capita towards banks in 2013 equalled €3,620 a year-on-year rise of €327. The analysts stressed that a number of clients used new loans to re-finance old ones. “It should not be omitted that 2013 was a year of re-financing. The high growth shouldn't be attributed only to a boom in mortgages but mostly to loan transfers between banks,” said Fincentrum analyst Ján Porázik.
