In Slovakia, the number of personal bankruptcies increased by 11.95% (9,674 people) last year compared to 2021, according to Slovak Credit Bureau (CRIF SK), which administers the credit register of banking and non-banking institutions.
The year-on-year rise in personal bankruptcies followed two years of decline. "The number of personal bankruptcies has grown in the last year as a result of the pandemic situation. I'm afraid that this year the situation will be even more dramatic and the number of bankruptcies will grow even more substantially. The high level of indebtedness of inhabitants of Slovakia, the general rise in prices, especially of energy and high inflation will have an influence on this," said CRIF SK chief analyst Jana Marková.
In 2022, an average of 860 citizens of Slovakia went bankrupt each month. From all the personal bankruptcies declared by the courts last year, 9,560 debtors chose debt relief by bankruptcy; while a mere 114 debtors opted for instalment calendars. Marková added that last year courts issued 9,746 decisions on discharging bankruptcy, from which 8,815 (90.45%) were decisions to discharge bankruptcy because of lack property. Only 931 (9.55%) had property from which they could settle at least part of their debts.
Last year, bankruptcy was most frequent among men in their thirties (29.47%) and women in their forties (29.14 percent). Among the men who went bankrupt last year, 2.93% had university education. Among the bankrupt women, 2.87% had university education.
Source: TASR
