Number of people indebted to banks increased by a million in a month

Photo: duzcetakip.com

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The number of individual loan customers of banks increased by over a million from February to March, according to Minister of Treasury and Finance Lütfi Elvan.

The number of people who took a loan from banks was 35,03 million as of March, Elvan said in a response to a parliamentary question by main opposition Republican People's Party (CHP) deputy Ömer Fethi Gürer.

Responding to a previous parliamentary question in March, Elvan had announced that the number of indebted people was 28.57 million in 2016 and 34 million in February.

The number of housing loan customers was 2.56 million and the total housing loan amount was 277.73 billion Turkish lira (~32 billion USD) in March, according to the minister.

With 412.5 billion lira (~47.6 billion USD) of consumer loans, the total amount of loans was 703.9 billion lira (~81 billion USD).

The amount of credit card receivables of banks was 160.4 billion lira (~18.5 billion USD) and the number of credit card customers was 29.1 million, Elvan stated.

MP Gürer said there are almost no debt-free citizens, especially among those with fixed income, amid the economic crisis.

"There are those who try to pay off their loans by loans. Credit is the mainstay of business life. In agriculture, things work with credit," he said, adding that problems are further exacerbated when people fail to pay off their loans. (HA/VK)