The total financial assets of households in Ukraine in 2013 grew by 3.5 percent compared to 20 percent growth in the previous year, according to the Global Wealth Report issued by Allianz SE insurance company which puts the asset and debt situation of private households in 53 countries under the microscope.
According to the report, the indicator fell due to the sharp reduction of the securities portfolio (by over 10 percent), and the banking deposits, insurance and pension assets showed two-digit growth.
Allianz specialists said that in the long-term retrospective review the development of assets in Ukraine shows a good increase: since 2007 the total financial assets of households tripled, and since 2000 the average pace of assets growth was 34.7 percent , which is the highest figure in Eastern Europe.
According to the report, the upward pace in the region last year slowed by 1 percentage notch, to 11.2 percent , but the growth was two-times more than in Western Europe (5.2 percent ). Eastern Europe remained the regional growth champion in a long-term comparison, with average growth of 14.5 percent p.a. in the period between 2001 and 2013, Allianz said. Despite this fact, many countries, especially the EU, slightly cut the pace of accumulating assets since 2007.
According to the report, if growth of assets is assessed subtracting the general pace of inflation, its pace in Eastern Europe amounts to 6 percent a year. This is almost equal to the real pace of growth in Latin America (5.5 percent ), but lower than the pace of growth in Asia (not taking into account Japan), which reached almost 10 percent a year.
Despite the unfavorable market conditions, assets in Eastern Europe showed an upward pace in the past two years, Michael Heise, Chief Economist at Allianz, said. He said that this showed that the region continues overtaking the lag from the more developed countries. The escalation of the Ukrainian crisis added several new dark clouds in the skyline, he said.
Allianz said that in 2013, in the whole world not only assets but also debt loans (including mortgage debts) showed high growth. In Eastern Europe the public debt in 2013 rose by 13.2 percent, to 760 billion euros. This increase in recent years is, however, solely attributable to the non-EU member states, particularly Russia and Turkey. Debt liabilities of Ukrainian households grew by only 3.1 percent after several years of the decline.
In late 2013 the regional the ratio of debt to general economic activity reached 22.6 percent, In the region’s EU member states, the ratio was much higher, averaging 34 percent, but it was still the case that not one of the countries from this region that are included in our analysis overshot the 50 percent mark. In Ukraine it was 13.3 percent.
In global terms, the net financial assets (total financial assets subtracting liabilities) showed a 12.4 percent rise.
The top five in the volume of the net financial assets includes Switerland (146,540 euros per capita), the United States (119,570 euros), Belgium (78,300 euros), the Netherlands (71,430 euros) and Japan (71,190 euros).
