Introducción a los disipadores de fluido viscoso

benefits per head of population, 2007, € PPS(a)

Expenditure on unemployment benefits per head of population, 2010, € PPS(a)

Change in expenditure on unemployment benefits per head of population, 2007-2010(%)(b) Change in unemployment 2007-2010 (%)(b) EU27 315 415 32 35 BE 945 1102 17 11 BG 28 64 134 49 CZ 124 160 28 38 DK 484 751 55 97 DE 447 492 10 -18 EE 24 119 391 267 IE 502 1095 118 196 EL 245 366 50 52 ES 539 867 61 142 FR 515 578 12 15 IT 116 206 78 38 CY 210 250 19 56 LV 57 165 188 205 LT 57 113 97 374 LU 635 820 29 10 HU 118 143 21 51 MT 97 111 15 6 NL 376 509 35 25 AT 443 516 17 0 PL 54 64 18 0 PT 225 282 25 35 RO 28 64 130 14 SI 94 139 48 49 SK 95 166 74 29 FI 560 683 22 22 SE 339 412 22 38 UK 149 199 34 47

In interviews conducted for this study, well over a third (37%) of stakeholders indicated that the (insufficient) level of social welfare was an important cause of household over-indebtedness in their country. In comments, stakeholders in Member

Table 33.

Expenditure on

unemployment

benefits per head of

population and

change in

unemployment

(2007-2010)

Sources: Civic Consulting based on Eurostat data (a) code: tps00107; (b) code: tsdec450. Note: Social benefits consist of transfers, in cash or in kind, by social protection schemes to households and individuals to relieve them of the burden of a defined set of risks or needs. PPS: Purchasing Power Standard.

EU/IMF financing package and included cuts in eligibility as well as cuts to the amounts paid. In these same Member States increases in taxation and particularly to taxes on goods and services were reported (see comments below).

Falling wages and social welfare cuts

"[Our organisation] has not yet conducted any detailed analysis of the phenomenon of over-indebtedness. However the common position of [our organisation] and all its members is that social welfare level is one of the most important causes of over-

indebtedness. That is the only cause that all our members agreed on. (EU level

stakeholder).

"There have been significant cuts in welfare rates in Ireland since the crash in 2008. To give but one example, a couple with one child would have received 166 Euro per month in universal child benefit in 2008; by 2012, this had been cut to 140 Euro per month (a reduction of 15%). There have also been tightened eligibility criteria for various entitlements." (Country report Ireland)

"If employment decreases, as in Greece now, and you have strong families, as is the case in Greece, then you might have problems if you rely partially on family support ... There is a strong possibility that some families have two or three unemployed people: mother, father, child, for example. There have been cuts in social security as well as in pensions, so in some cases where a mother and a father had a pension and they were supporting the rest of the family, they may have lost this capability to support them now." (Stakeholder interview Greece)

"The social welfare system's predictability is important for people's personal finances. Large and rapid changes in the rules create problems for individual supply e.g. loans, bills and utilities. The social welfare system in Sweden has deteriorated such that people's protection against illness and unemployment has become worse and more unpredictable. The pension system has also become worse and financial commitments can be more difficult to cope with less income [from the pension]." (Stakeholder interview Sweden)

"The unemployment level is the highest it has been in Cyprus since 1974. And wage level is also important - there have been no increases in the state sector in the last year. And with inflation that means that wages have effectively decreased." (Stakeholder interview Cyprus)

In the consumer interviews, low levels of social welfare were considered additional important drivers of over-indebtedness. Because of unemployment, retirement or illness, many households were living from social benefits, and some of these specified that their benefits or pensions were not high enough to cover their living expenses. Additionally, many interviewees who were employed also reported that their income was not high enough, in particular in combination with the rising costs of living.

6.1.6 Movements in interest and exchange rates

Only 16% of the stakeholders interviewed for this study indicated that movements in interest rates were among the most important causes of household over- indebtedness, with even less (10%) citing movements in exchange rates.

However, this concealed considerable country variation. Stakeholders in several Member States (including Austria, Bulgaria, Hungary, Poland, and Romania) reported that mortgages in Swiss Francs had been promoted in their country and this had a serious impact when the local currency fell substantially against the Swiss Franc. For example, up to half of outstanding mortgages in Austria were reported to have been in a foreign currency and most of these in Swiss Franc.115 _{In Greece it was noted that}

Swiss Franc mortgages had been heavily marketed in 2007 when the exchange rate was about 1.65 Swiss Franc per Euro.116 _{In contrast, in October 2012 the rate was 1.21}

Swiss Franc per Euro,117 _{increasing mortgage repayments in Euro by more than a}

third. Currencies which were not part of the Euro were particularly vulnerable to currency speculation (see box on next page).

A comparison of the changes in exchange rates of different currencies to Swiss Francs can be seen in the table below.

Currency 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 EUR (Euro) 0.62 0.60 0.67 0.67 0.80 0.82 BGN (Lev) 1.21 1.18 1.31 1.32 1.56 1.61 GBP (Pound) 0.41 0.45 0.64 0.60 0.69 0.69 HUF (Forint) 155.8 152.9 178.1 182.6 222.2 259.3 PLN (Zloty) 2.38 2.18 2.78 2.76 3.17 3.67 RON (Leu) 2.10 2.18 2.69 2.84 3.42 3.55

Consumer interviews partially reflected this development. In Hungary exchange rates played a major role, as more than half of the consumers interviewed had taken out loans in foreign currency and cited movements in exchange rates as a key cause of their financial difficulties.

The views on interest rates were more mixed: in Bulgaria, Hungary, and Greece it was reported that interest rate rises contributed to an increase in the level of financial difficulties in their countries. In Poland, for example, the Polish Financial Supervision Authority (KNF) curbed sales of new FX credits in Swiss CHF specifically in order to reduce foreign exchange rate losses. According to them, in the period 2008–2009 up

Table 34. Exchange

rates of selected