04 October 2010

HUNGARY/ROMANIA: Many Struggle As Foreign Loan Costs Soar.

AP/ PABLO GORONDI /
      Foreign currency loans were extremely popular in Eastern Europe during the mid-2000s. But they are now proving to be a serious burden in several countries, especially Hungary, Romania and Ukraine.
The problem seems the worse in Hungary with its sharply devalued forint.(Pictured)
There foreign currency loans totaled 7.3 trillion forints ($35 billion usd) at the end of June with nearly 80% of that was in Swiss francs, with some loans in euros.
Of the 1.8 million people with such loans, 400,000 are behind on their payments, including 100,000 who are behind by three months or more.