Defaulted credit card and consumer loan debts rising in Turkey

Neşe Karanfil - ANKARA

REUTERS photo

The volume of defaulted credit card and consumer loan debts reached 15.1 billion Turkish Liras ($5 billion) in July, according to figures from Turkey’s banking watchdog. 

Defaulted credit card and consumer loan debts rose by 14.5 percent and by 20 percent, respectively, since the beginning of the year, according to data from the Banking Regulation and Supervision Agency (BDDK). 

Most of the defaulted 8.9 billion liras of consumer loans were composed of instalment loans at around 8 billion liras, followed by housing loans at around 644 million liras and automotive loans at 219 million liras. Defaulted credit card debts also increased to 6.2 billion liras, according to the BDDK’s data. 

Defaulted consumer debts to total consumer debts had been around 3.66 percent in 2010 and showed a decrease in the following years. The rate fell to 2.7 percent in 2011, 2.86 percent in 2012 and 2.75 percent in 2013. This rate, however, started to increase again in 2014, reaching 2.85 percent in 2014. This figure rose to 2.89 percent as of June 2015. When defaulted credit card debts were included, the figure rose to 3.84 percent as of June 2015. This figure was around 4.13 percent in 2010.