Abstract
Between 2000 and 2007 there was a period of extensive expansion in lending to households in Croatia. Due to the deep economic crisis, many households now face problems with the repayment of their significant, barely repayable debt. Among them, the most prominent are those with loans denominated in Swiss francs.1 The rise in Swiss franc value against the Croatian kuna (HRK),2 combined with high interest rates, increased the monthly loan payments for these loans by an average of EUR 220 (euros; an average salary in Croatia being EUR 730). In 2011, when the Swiss franc was at its highest value (before the intervention of the Swiss National Bank in September 2011), there were around 100,000 Swiss franc-denominated loans. Most of them — around 75,000 — were long-term housing loans.3
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Avdjiev, S., McCauley, R. and McGuire, P. (2012). Rapid credit growth and international credit: Challenges for Asia. BIS Working Papers No. 377.
Backert, W., Brock, D., Lechner, G. and Maischatz, K. (2009). Bankruptcy in Germany: Filing rates and the people behind the numbers. In Niemi, J., Ramsay, I. and Whitford, W. C. (eds.). Consumer Credit, Debt and Bankruptcy: Comparative and International Perspectives. Oxford, UK: Hart Publishing, 273–288.
Bakker, B. B. and Gulde, A.-M. (2010). The credit boom in the EU new member states: Bad luck or bad policies? IMF Working Papers, 1–45.
Blom, B. and Nygren, L. (2010). Analysing written narratives: Considerations on the “code-totality problems”. Nordic Journal of Social Research, 1, retrieved on http://bells.uib.no/index.php/njsr/article/view/66.
Bohle, D. (2013). Post-socialist housing meets transnational finance: Foreign banks, mortgage lending, and the privatization of welfare in Hungary and Estonia. Review of International Political Economy, 4, 1–36.
Bourdieu, P. (2005). The Social Structures of the Economy. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
Brown, M., Peter, M. and Wehrmuller, S. (2009). Swiss franc lending in Europe. Aussenwirtschaft: Schweizerische Zeitschrift Für Internationale Wirtschaftsbeziehungen/The Swiss Review ofInternational Economic Relations, 64 (2), 167–181.
Burić, I. (2010). Nacija zaduženih: Od komunističkog pakla do potrošačkog kapitalizma. [Nation of indebted: From the communist hell to consumer capitalism]. Zagreb: Naklada Jesenski i Turk.
CBS (2013). Results of Households Budger Survey 2011. Zagreb: Croatian Bureau of Statistics.
CCE (2014). Forclosures by Type and Year, 2006–2013. Zagreb: Croatian Chamber of Economy. (Unpublished analysis, retrieved on author’s request from CCE Business Information Centre.)
Ćetković, P. (2011). Credit growth and instability in Balkan countries: The role of foreign banks. Research on Money and Finance, 27, retrieved on December 9, 2012 http://ideas.repec.org/p/rmf/dpaper/27.html.
CNB (2005). Makrobonitetna analiza [Macroprudential analysis] (No. 1 ). Zagreb: Croatian National Bank.
CNB (2009). Financijska stabilnost [Financial stability] (No. 2 ). Zagreb: Croatian National Bank.
CNB (2011). Financijska stabilnost [Financial stability] (No. 7 ). Zagreb: Croatian National Bank.
CNB (2013). Financijska stabilnost [Financial stability] (No. 11 ). Zagreb: Croatian National Bank.
European Commission (2008). Towards a Common Operational European Definition of Over-Indebtedness. European Commission.
Fondeville, N., Özdemir, E. and Ward, T. (2010). Over-Indebtedness. New Evidence from the EU-SILC Special Module. Research note 4/2010. European Commission.
Galati, G., Heath, A. and McGuire, P. (2007). Evidence of carry trade activity. BIS Quarterly Review, 3, 27–41.
GfK (2012). Hrvatska kućanstva–prihodi (troškovi) u 2011. godini [Croatian households–income (expenses) in 2011], retrieved on March 8, 2012 http://www.gfk.hr/public_relations/press/press_articles/009457/index.hr.html , accessed 8 March 2012.
Herceg, I. and Šošić V. (2011). The anatomy of household debt build up in Croatia: Enlisting more creditworthy households or relaxing lending standards? Comparative Economic Studies, 53 (2) (June), 199–221.
Kraft, E. (2002). Foreign banks in Croatia: Another look. CNB Working Papers W—10, retrieved on August 9, 2013 http://www.hnb.hr/publikac/istrazivanja/w-010.pdf .
Kraft, E., Hofler, R. and Payne, J. (2002). Privatization, foreign bank entry and bank efficiency in Croatia: A Fourier-flexible function stochastic cost frontier analysis. CNB Working Papers W –- 9, retrieved on August 9, 2013 http://www.hnb.hr/publikac/istrazivanja/w-009.pdf .
Matković, T. (2003). Opseg i oblici zaposlenosti na povvetku informacijskog doba [Disappearance of Work? The Scope and Forms of Employment at the Dawn of the Information Age]. Društvena Istrazivanja, 13 (1–2), 241–265.
Nettleton, S. and Burrows, R. (2000). When a capital investment becomes an emotional loss: The health consequences of the experience of mortgage possession in England. Housing Studies, 15 (3), 463–478.
Novotny, D. (2011). Treba li vlada pomoÉi dužnicima u Švicarcima [Should the Government help the Swiss franc debtors]. T-portal, 2 June 2011, retrieved on April 19, 2012 http://www.tportal.hr/biznis/novaciulaganje/131319/Trebali-Vlada-pomoci-duznicima-u-svicarcima.html.
Riessman, C. K. (2008). Narrative Methods for the Social Sciences. London: Sage.
SAO (2004). Final Audit Report on Privatisation. Zagreb: State Audit Office.
Škreb, M. and Šonje, V. (2001). Financial sector restructuring: The Croatian experience. Financial Transition in Europe and Central Asia: Challenges of the New Decade. Washington, DC: International Bank for Reconstruction and Development/World Bank.
Šonje, V. and Vujčić, B. (1999). Croatia in the Second Stage of Transition 1994–1999, CNB Working Papers W —10, retrieved on March 4, 2015 http://www.hnb.hr/publikac/istrazivanja/w-010.pdf .
Valins, O. (2004). When Debt Becomes a Problem: A Litera-ture Study. Ministry of Social Development, retrieved on March 15, 2013 http://www.familybudgeting.org.nz/documents/when%20debt%20becomes%20a%20problem.pdf .
Vizek, M. (2009). Priuštivost stanovanja u Hrvatskoj i odabranim europskim zemljama [Housing Affordability in Croatia and Selected European Countries]. Revija zasoci jalnu politiku, 16(3), retrieved on August 9, 2013 http://www.rsp.hr/ojs2/index.php/rsp/article/view/809 .
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2015 Petra Rodik
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rodik, P. (2015). The Impact of the Swiss Franc Loans Crisis on Croatian Households. In: Değirmencioğlu, S.M., Walker, C. (eds) Social and Psychological Dimensions of Personal Debt and the Debt Industry. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137407795_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9781137407795_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-57256-4
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40779-5
eBook Packages: Palgrave Social Sciences CollectionSocial Sciences (R0)