The country has shown a significant increase in the cost of the debt, due to the increases in the intervention rate of the Bank of the Republic. The upward policy seeks to control the behavior of inflation, which has remained in double digits in recent months. As a result, TransUnion’s ‘Consumer Pulse’ found that 34% of those surveyed in the second quarter of the year state that they will not be able to pay at least one of their debts.
This shows a deepening of this perspective, since in the first quarter surveythis result was 31%.
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This dynamic is explained, at least in part, by a series of factors related to household income. This same survey found that 29% of households had a decrease in their family income, increasing this result by one percentage point compared to the data that had been seen during the first quarter.
To this is added an increase of 3 percentage points in the number of households that indicated that their economic situation was worse than a year ago, in the second quarter.
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“In line with reported income declines, a higher percentage of respondents indicated that someone in their household had lost their job (25% vs. 22% in the first quarter), in addition to having someone in their household who owned a small business that closed or sold out (8% vs. 5% in Q1)”, assures the company study.
Now, one point that is nuanced in TransUnion’s analysis is that most people have a plan to pay off their credit obligations. 37% of those consultedthey said they would use money from their savingsanother 30% said they would borrow from their friends and acquaintances and 10% said they would use the available space on their credit card. However, 4% said they did not know how to pay them.
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Regarding savings and credit, this survey found that the percentage of people who were able to set aside a part of their income fell three percentage points, reaching 21% in the second quarter of the year.
To this is added that the use of available credit had an increase of two points, reaching 21%.
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However, in response to these situations, most of the people consulted (47%) indicated that they are going to reduce their discretionary expenses, such as dining out, travel, entertainment.
In addition, 24% will keep these expenses at the same levels and 27% said they would make increases.
“Colombians continue to be concerned about macroeconomic dynamics, particularly inflation, employment, and rising interest rates.”, assured the study.
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