OREANDA-NEWS. June 09, 2015. The best part of households accumulated financial assets as cash, in an account or by holding deposits with banks and do not intend to change their choice in the near future, shows the latest conducted Survey of the Financial Behaviour of Households, commissioned by the Bank of Lithuania. 

“On the other hand, there was increasingly greater interest in saving instruments with a higher risk level, such as life assurance, pension funds, while the average number of household saving instruments was on the rise. Households in major cities and those that have at least one member with higher education invested more actively and chose more varied saving instruments,” says Vaidotas ?umskis, economist of the Macroprudential Analysis Division of the Financial Stability Department at the Bank of Lithuania.  

In the first half of 2015, households that managed to save at least a little accounted for 74.8 per cent. The share of those that managed to save (2.5%) is somewhat smaller than half a year ago. Two thirds of households with lower income (up to EUR 600) managed to save a little as well. Households that did not have any financial liabilities were most able to save.

Almost half (44.4%) of the surveyed households had financial liabilities of some kind. Residents borrowed mainly for the financing of their consumption and housing needs.

Households with lower income more often than the respondents within other income groups borrowed from family or friends, and used the fast credits service. In the first half of 2015 these liabilities accounted for 23.5 and 21.4 per cent of the financial liabilities of total households with lower income respectively. The financial liabilities of households with highest income accounted for 15.8 and 4.2 per cent respectively.

Half of those surveyed (50.8%) with some financial liabilities claimed that these liabilities were a burden for the household. Households in the major cities and villages assessed their financial burden slightly more optimistically than people in smaller cities. As compared to the second half of 2014, the number of households for which the discharge of their financial liabilities was a burden grew across Lithuania, the most — in smaller cities. In addition, respondents with loans from fast credit companies or friends and acquaintances mainly considered their financial liabilities a burden. The largest share of households (79.7%) for which the discharge of their financial liabilities was a burden did not expect that their discharge would ease in the near future.