The Plague of Debt. In Several Cities It’s Clearly Worse
2.6 million adult Poles, or one in 12 people in the country, cannot cope with timely repayment of current bills, alimony and loans. The largest number of unpaid debts is where mines went bankrupt decades ago.
Data collected in the BIG InfoMonitor Debtors Register clearly indicate that excessive indebtedness of residents was recorded where we had to deal with the collapse of large industrial plants, especially mines, which we have been observing since the 1990s. The first place on the podium of this inglorious list is taken by Wałbrzych.
Debt in Wałbrzych
Each resident of Wałbrzych with an unpaid debt has to repay an average of PLN 26,000, in total the overdue debt of Wałbrzych residents amounts to over PLN 414 million and has increased by PLN 73.6 million in just 2 years. In Wałbrzych County, on the other hand, the average overdue debt is slightly lower and amounts to PLN 24.9 thousand. The obligation of residents of this county already exceeds PLN 164 million. Among the data recorded in the BIG InfoMonitor and BIK databases for this Lower Silesian region, one can also find positive changes – the number of unreliable debtors is regularly decreasing.
The situation is similar in Upper Silesia. The over-indebted residents of Chorzów have an average of PLN 26.8 thousand of overdue debt to repay, residents of Bytom PLN 27.3 thousand, and residents of Świętochłowice PLN 26.1 thousand. In their case, the sum of overdue debts has also increased, but the number of debtors has decreased.
– Without a doubt, the economic situation in the entire country, also in counties with the highest percentage of owners of overdue liabilities, has definitely improved over the last 20 years. Just look at how the unemployment rate has changed over the last 20 years or how incomes have increased. In 2004, the unemployment rate in the country was an average of 18 percent, but in the Wałbrzych county it was already over 28 percent, in Świętochłowice 27 percent, Bytom 25 percent, and in Chorzów 22.7 percent. Now the unemployment rate for the entire country is 4.9 percent, and in most of the counties mentioned it is lower. Only in Bytom does it still exceed 8 percent. The improvement in the professional situation of residents directly affects their ability to repay their debts on time, but not in every case –notes Sławomir Grzelczak, president of BIG InfoMonitor.
8 billion arrears of Warsaw residents
When we look at the nominal value of overdue liabilities, we also find cities with county rights in the lead. At the very top are the residents of Warsaw, whose unpaid liabilities reached a value of almost PLN 8 billion. In second place are the residents of Łódź, who have PLN 2.2 billion of overdue debts to repay. In third place are the residents of Kraków with PLN 1.9 billion of arrears. The top 10 also includes: Wrocław (PLN 1.8 billion), Poznań (PLN 1.6 billion), Szczecin (PLN 1.5 billion), Gdańsk (PLN 1.3 billion), Bydgoszcz (PLN 1.1 billion), Katowice (PLN 851 million), Lublin (PLN 824 million).
– Many factors influence the differentiation of debt in regions. And a rich county does not always have reliable payers and vice versa, a poor county does not always have reliable payers. The financial condition of society is certainly influenced by the level of unemployment, i.e. earning capacity, demographic situation, migration, but also geopolitical and cultural background, industrial development, and finally social pressure and mentality. If in good economic conditions, often due to excessive optimism and faith in their abilities when taking on debts, Poles get into trouble, they usually blame it on too low earnings and themselves. They talk about low salaries and that they did not take into account unexpected expenses or random events or that they mismanage the budget, recently they also cited inflation as the main reason for their poor financial situation – emphasizes Sławomir Grzelczak, president of BIG InfoMonitor.
Among the most indebted counties, Poznań is in the lead. The outstanding debt of its residents is already approaching one billion PLN (964 million PLN). The unreliable residents of Piaseczno County owe almost 910 million PLN. On the lowest step of the podium, we will find residents of Wołomin County with a debt of 745 million PLN, followed by Wejherowo County (657 million PLN), Pruszków County (571 million PLN), Warsaw West County (504 million PLN), Inowrocław County (453 million PLN), Goleniów County (424 million PLN), Wrocław County (423 million PLN) and Otwock County (411 million PLN).