Survey shows only few households borrow from banks

TIRANA, Jan. 28 – Only a mere 3 percent of Albanian households address banks in case of financial difficulty, shows a Bank of Albania survey. The survey shows two-thirds of Albanians, around 68 percent, cut down on spending and some 41 percent borrow from friends and relatives in case of financial straits. Some 18 percent said they postponed the payment of bills and shift to buying on credit from local shops. Some 14 percent said they worked extra hours, some 10 percent sell something precious and 6.4 percent withdraw from their bank deposits. Some 4.6 percent address informal borrowers and 3.2 percent borrow from employers, usually in advance salaries.
The survey showed only 1.1 percent choose the overdraft, some 1 percent apply in pension funds and another 1 percent apply for a household loan. Some 0.5 percent use an unauthorized overdraft and only 0.3 percent use a credit card.
Around 20 percent of Albanians have never heard of basic banking products such as the current account or saving account, according to a nationwide Bank of Albania survey with 1,000 individuals aged more than 18 conducted in 2011 but published this week. The survey also showed only less than half of interviewees knew about the concepts of simple and compound interest rates.