Every other loan taken out by Bulgarian households in the year ended September 31, 2007 did not exceed 1,000 levs, shows central bank data.
In terms of volume, household loans added 425,000 in September 2006-September 2007.
Household loans of up to 1,000 levs rose 220,000 over the review period from 1.06 mln to 1.28 mln. In terms of value, small loans increased by 64.1 mln levs year-on-year. This breaks down to an average size of less than 300 levs per loan.
The uptick is attributed by the experts to the wider popularity of credit and debit card overdrafts as indicated by the increase in household overdrafts to 1.128 bln levs by end-September 2007.
An overview of the micro-loan market would be incomplete if the central bank data is not complemented with data from non-banking consumer lenders like Jet Finance. The company lent 170 mln levs in 2006 and expects volumes to double in 2007.
In terms of value, the biggest year-on-year gain was posted by loans of 10,000 to 25,000 levs. They added 885 mln levs or a fourth of total new loans.
Another 800 mln levs each were disbursed as loans of 50,000 to 100,000 and of 100,000 to 250,000 levs.
According to bank statistics, 16,500 Bulgarians borrowed loans of over 50,000 levs each, indicating a monthly income of over 1,200 levs.(Dnevnik)
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