EIRP Proceedings, Vol 7 (2012)

Abstract

In recent years, pre-crisis years, the loans granted to household experienced an extremely accelerated dynamic in most new EU member states. Such a development has led to an increase in the degree of bank indebtedness of the households and to considerable macroeconomic and financial imbalances. The current crisis has stopped the rapid growth of the loans granted to households and has led to worsening financial situation of households and a significant deterioration of the soundness bank indicators. In this context, the purpose of our paper is a comparative analysis of the main characteristics of the evolution of bank loans granted to household in the new EU member states (Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland and Romania), of the vulnerabilities caused by the fast increase of the bank indebtedness of the households, and the implications of the current crisis.