In order to survive, the citizens of Bosnia and Herzegovina are increasingly indebted for consumption. Of the total debt amounting to more than seven billion marks, as much as 75 percent refers to loans for general consumption.
And while economic experts offer solutions to alleviate the crisis, the government is silent.
“We’re starting to live on credit.” With this sentence, most citizens describe mere survival due to the daily rise in prices and low incomes.
According to the data of the Central Bank, more than seven billion BAM is the indebtedness of the population of our country for non-purpose loans. And almost every adult citizen owes more than three thousand BAM to commercial banks.
Vesna Papic, Financial Stability Department of the Central Bank of BiH
“According to the data of the Entity Banking Agencies, at the end of the third quarter, the indebtedness of citizens is around 7.7 billion BAM. In total loans, these loans account for about 75 percent. The nomination of these loans is not surprising they often use these loans to meet housing needs. ”
It is estimated that every sixth household in our country is poor. To survive most try to find extra employment.
Dusan Srdic, Association for Consumer Protection “Reakcija”, Banja Luka
“If we take into account that two employees in a family of four work at the lowest cost of labor, if we take into account that 40 percent of the consumer basket is spent on food, that is really a lot and other aspects in that consumer basket suffer.”
It takes a lot to get out of this situation. Economic experts are proposing solutions, including suspending the payment of excise duty on fuel. This, they say, would have a significant impact on reducing the cost of transporting the goods and food we buy.
Zoran Pavlovic, economic expert
“The most difficult thing in the whole story is that the government does not care about investments or projects that can lead to employment, both at the entity and BiH level. We do not have protection of domestic production, primarily agricultural when the harvest comes, we have no incentives for people who want to produce their own food. ”
Vjekoslav Domljan, economic expert
“The problem is that there are no instruments. There is no monetary policy at the country level. There is no exchange rate policy. There is fiscal policy. What is the fiscal policy? It is divided. At the state level, indirect taxes are VAT, customs duties, excise taxes the case of the Federation and the cantons. So there is one instrument left that is fragmented, uncoordinated. So how about a green branch? ”
Most politicians are silent. They are good with a salary that is eight times higher than the average salary of citizens, which is not the case anywhere in Europe.
Source: BHRT
