Neuss (dpa/lnw) - The number of over-indebted consumers in North Rhine-Westphalia has fallen again this year, despite the dramatic price increases for energy and food. In total, the credit agency Creditreform registered around 1.5 million cases of over-indebtedness in the most populous federal state in its "Debt Atlas Germany 2022" published in Neuss on Tuesday - around 60,000 fewer than in the previous year.
According to the study, with a debt ratio of 10.05 percent, NRW is still well above the national average of 8.48 percent. Only Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Bremen did worse among the federal states. The over-indebtedness rate is lowest in Bavaria (6.05 percent) and Baden-Württemberg (6.95 percent).
According to the experts, over-indebtedness occurs when the debtor is highly unlikely to be able to pay the sum of his payment obligations over a longer period of time - or in short: the total expenditure exceeds the income.
The Ruhr area in particular, with its structurally weak regions that are still partly characterized by old industry, remains a focus of social problems. "High unemployment, income poverty and high social transfer payments continue to form a precarious situation that makes the regions around the Ruhr area a "problem child" in terms of over-indebtedness," says the debtor atlas.
However, it is gratifying that the over-indebtedness rates in the Ruhr area have fallen for the second time in a row, albeit not as much as the national trend. According to Creditreform, the over-indebtedness rate in the eleven cities and districts in the Ruhr area fell from 12.65 to 12.36 percent. Nevertheless, the cities of Duisburg (15.87 percent), Essen (12.45 percent) and Dortmund (12.44 percent) in the Ruhr area lead the over-indebtedness ranking of cities with over 400,000 inhabitants.
Nationwide, the number of over-indebted consumers fell by 274,000 to 5.88 million this year.
