Martin Cesnak, National Bank of Slovakia, University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Andrej Cupak, National Bank of Slovakia, University of Economics in Bratislava, Slovak Republic
Ján Klacso, National Bank of Slovakia, Slovak Republic

Pages: 47 – 71

Abstract

The negative impact of household over-indebtedness as well as developments in the residential real estate market on financial stability came to the fore after the global financial crisis in 2007 – 2008. An active macroprudential policy addressing these risks, supported also by recommendations from international institutions, requires the most detailed data on both households and the residential real estate market. Slovakia belonged to the European countries with the most significant increase in systemic risks in the aftermath of the financial crisis, practically until the tightening of monetary policy in 2022. Therefore, it is also important that granular microdata are currently available to the National Bank of Slovakia, allowing to monitor the evolution of indebtedness for individual households. In this paper, we present data from the Household Finance and Consumption Survey and data on loans to individuals and use them to estimate the main determinants of Slovak household indebtedness. It appears that financial and socio-demographic factors like income, education or form of economic activity play
an important role in indebtedness and its intensity.