Industry Watch: Bulgarians Financial Wealth Up by 10% Y/Y

Bulgarians' personal wealth increased by 10% in one year, according to Industry Watch, a Sofia-based consultancy. Photo by BGNES

Bulgarian households’ financial wealth has increased by BGN 3.4 B over the past year, according to Sofia-based consultancy Industry Watch.

Industry Watch released Wednesday its report “Personal Assets in Bulgaria: Financial Weatlh and Housing Market, Q2 2010“ indicating that at the end of March 2010, Bulgarians’ assets were worth BGN 36.4 B.

“Financial assets of the population increased by 10% y-o-y thanks to the increased propensity of households to save and accrued interest due on bank deposits. Parallel to the accumulation of new savings Bulgarians paid 30% of their short-term debt to leasing companies and credit companies,“ states the report of the consultancy.

Its data shows that some 68% of Bulgarian household savings are invested with commercial banks in the form of deposits, and that in the first quarter of 2010 the combined income from interest on deposits that Bulgarians received amounted to BGN 317 M.

“Housing continued to depreciate, although the rate of decline was slowing down. Housing loans increased by 7% in April 2010 compared to to April 2009, as interest on mortgage loans in euro decreased significantly - by 1 percentage point over the last six months. Moreover, the differential between interest rates on BGN loans and interest rates on euro loans has significantly decreased in the first half of 2010,” says Industry Watch, while pointing out that the average monthly salary in Bulgaria is sufficient to purchase 0.65 square meters of living space.

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