The residents of Podkarpacie are the most reliable clients in Poland. And what about the other regions?

Among all Polish provinces, the residents of Podkarpacie are the most financially reliable. These are the findings of the “Receivables Management Report”, prepared at the end of the first quarter of 2017 by the KRUK Group. Only 4.1 per cent of residents of Podkarpackie province struggle with the problem of indebtedness. For comparison, in Lower Silesia, Western Pomerania and Kujawy-Pomeranian Province this percentage was three times higher.

In Podkarpacie the percentage of people indebted is the lowest in the whole country. It is slightly above 4 per cent. This is the percentage of indebted people in relation to the general number of the residents of the province (88 thousand people out of 2.12 million residents have overdue liabilities). Another region where residents have the least problems with indebtedness is Podlasie, which takes the second position in the ranking of the most reliable clients (68 thousand indebted people in relation to 1.19 million inhabitants). This means that the percentage of people with debt is 5.7 per cent. Lower Silesia is at the other end of the ranking. The percentage of indebted people is 12.6 (367 thousand indebted people in relation to 2.9 million inhabitants of this province). The problem of indebtedness also concerns a significant number of people in Western Pomerania (210 thousand of indebted people out of 1.7 million inhabitants), as well as inhabitants of Kujawy-Pomeranian Province (254 thousand in relation to 2.08 million residents).

- The lowest percentage of indebted people is in Podkarpacie and Podlasie. This might result from a number of factors. As the data of Eurostat show, Podkarpackie and Podlaskie provinces belong to the 19 poorest regions of the European Union. Both regions also belong to the provinces with the lowest average gross income, which is 16 per cent  lower than the country’s average. This might influence the behaviours of the inhabitants of these regions, who approach money spending in a much more cautions way than their neighbours from other regions in Poland. It seems that they are more cautions when it comes to purchase of products and services, including taking out credit facilities and loans. Their purchase decisions depend on their current income, which allow them to incur mainly short-term expenditure. Larger-scale purchases are planned a long time in advance.  – says Agnieszka Salach from the KRUK Group.

The highest total indebtedness in Masovian and Silesian Provinces

In terms of the total indebtedness of residents of particular provinces, the residents of Masovian Province have to pay back the biggest amount. They are in arrears for the total amount of 3.8 billion PLN (1.9 billion in Warsaw alone). In the ranking they are followed by the residents of Silesia, with a total indebtedness of 3.5 billion PLN (393 million of which is recorded in Częstochowa, 314 million in Katowice and 211 in Sosnowiec). The residents of Greater Poland take the third place, with indebtedness of 2.5 billion PLN (668 million PLN in Poznań). They are followed by the inhabitants of Lower Silesia, with 2.4 billion PLN debt (655 million PLN in Wrocław), Lesser Poland and Łódź Province – with the total debt amounting to 1.7 billion PLN (739 million PLN in Cracow and 681 million PLN in Łódź). The lowest total indebtedness is in Podlasie and it amounts to 403 million PLN (127 million PLN in Białystok).

As the “Receivables Management Report” prepared by the KRUK Group shows, the record breaker with the highest amount of debt resides in Wrocław and he owes his creditors 12.4 million PLN. Another consumer from Warsaw needs to pay off just slightly less, that is 11.9 million PLN.

• The four provinces at the forefront of regions with the highest indebtedness at the same time belong to the richest and industrially most developed regions in Poland. This, in turn, has an impact on the rising employment and higher income. The consumers here are more probable to take financial risk, to spend beyond their means or take spontaneous purchase decisions. In this way they can easily overestimate their possibilities, and subsequently lose control over their personal finances.– adds Agnieszka Salach from the KRUK Group.

The affluence of Masovia, Silesia, Greater Poland and Lower Silesia is confirmed by the Central Statistical Office. At the end of April 2017, the average monthly gross pay in the enterprise sector was over 5.2 thousand PLN in Masovia, over 4.3 thousand PLN in Silesia, 4.2 thousand PLN in Greater Poland and 4.5 in Lower Silesia.