World Bank has published 2018 Global Findex. The research studied how often do people borrow or save money in different countries of the world. Findex analyses information on up to 150 000 citizens of 140 countries, including Georgia.
According to the research, in different financial institutions of the world, 69% of population has accounts in banks. The same source indicates that 27.4% of adult population (over 15 years) has received a loan from financial institutions during the last one year, including in the form of credit card. In 2014, the rate was 20.3%. 20.7% of the population has borrowed from friends and relatives. 44.9% state that has borrowed money during one last year, but in some other form. In Georgia, the share of people who have borrowed from a financial institutions, exceeds the rate of Europe and Central Asia, which is 24%.
As to savings, according to the research, during one last year, only 4,6% of the population over 15 years has saved money in financial institutions. In Europe and Central Asia this rate is 14.4%. it is notable that in 2014 in Georgia, only 1% of the population had saved money during the last 12 months.
Besides, 2.5% of the population of Georgia had saved money with saving clubs another other person, who is not a family member. 15% of the population had saved money in other forms. 2.4% of the population saved money for old age. All these rates are clearly behind the rates of other countries of the world. For instance, in Europe and Central Asia regions 15% of the populations has saved money for old age during the last 12 months and 37% had saved in some other form.
Comparing Georgia to other countries of the region, we will see that during the last 12 months, in Azerbaijan 4.5% of the population saved money with financial institutions, in Turkey – 22%. This rate of the European countries is much higher and makes 75.4% in Sweden and 64.1% in Denmark.
