Loans of households exceed sectors in Turkey | Mustafa Sönmez
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Loans that fall into the individual loan category of housing, vehicle, personal and credit cards have reached 23.9 percent with 376 billion liras. The non-performing 15 billion liras are not included in this total. In consumer loans, the rate of bad loans is nearing 4 percent and it is over the rate of general non-performing loans. Thus, we can see that the loans of households in mid-2015 reached 390 billion liras.
Today in Turkey, there is a household loaning culture unseen in the period before 2003. Consumer credits are in the form of housing, vehicle and personal loans, over credit cards and cash credits. Even though they lost their tempo in 2014, they have increased rapidly every year.
Banks, even though they slowed down a little in past years, have given one-third of their credits to individuals. However, the economic, social and political dimensions of this increase are exaggerated from time to time [...]
Loaning for what?
Especially after 2005 when long-term housing credits were available, housing credits in individual loans made up one-third of family loans. While auto credits had an 8 to 9 percent share in earlier years, in later years its share went down to 2 percent. Thus, when talking about household loans, we should remember that 36-37 percent of them are loans to buy houses and cars. These are not loans out of financial difficulties; these are loans made by those who have a stable income. They should be considered separately
Another mistake made while talking about family loans and individual debt burdens is to look at the loaning relationship within the banking system. As a matter of fact, we know that families loan outside the banks also. Especially those segments which consider the interest rate a sin, loaning with foreign currency, purchases without using credit cards and taking loans from friends are quite widespread. Even if they constitute one-fourth of the loans which stand at 390 billion liras today then the family debt burden is immediately of much higher importance.
