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Cape Town – While South Africans were ranked the biggest borrowers in the world in 2014, a drop in civil summonses issued for debt in the past year reveals a positive sign for over-indebted consumers.
Stats SA revealed that the total number of civil summonses issued for debt decreased by 2.9% in the three months ended April 2015 compared with the three months ended April 2014. A year-on-year decrease of 15.8% was recorded between April 2014 and April 2015.
The total number of civil judgments recorded for debt decreased by 3.3% in the three months ended April 2015 compared with the three months ended April 2014. A decrease of 6.7% was recorded between April 2014 and April 2015.
The total value of civil judgments recorded for debt was 3.1% higher in the three months ended April 2015 compared with the three months ended April 2014. A year-on-year increase of 10.0% was recorded in April 2015.
The report comes after South Africans were ranked the biggest borrowers in the world in 2014 by the World Bank.
And they appear to be borrowing mostly from friends and family, private micro-lenders and to a far lesser extent from financial institutions.
This report from the World Bank, known as the Global Findex database, provides in-depth data on how people use financial services worldwide, how they save, borrow, manage risk and make payments. Interviews were conducted with 150 000 adults over the age of 15 from 140 different economies.
