These Are Europe’s Best and Worst Countries for Financial Well-Being

(Bloomberg) --

Germany and Austria topped a ranking of financial wellbeing in Europe, with Greece and Lithuania taking the bottom spots.

Swedish debt collector Intrum AB surveyed consumers on their ability to pay bills on time, freedom from credit, savings and financial literacy to launch its new Financial Wellbeing Barometer that ranks 24 European countries.

Germany and Denmark topped the sub-ranking on households’ ability to pay bills on time while Hungary, the Czech Republic and Estonia placed highest on credit freedom, or having the lowest dependency on debt. Sweden and Switzerland took the top spots for the amount consumers are able to save each month, while Finland and the U.K. scored highest on financial literacy.

Here are the key findings of Intrum’s annual European Consumer Payment Report:

• Some 45% of European consumers surveyed say their bills are rising at a faster rate than their incomes, with 43% saying those concerns are negatively affecting their general wellbeing.
• 24% have borrowed money or reached their credit card limit to pay bills over the past six months, up from 20% in last year’s survey.
• Even as living costs rise, the survey shows that 75% of consumers are still managing to save part of their salary each month, though 52% are dissatisfied with the amount they are able to save.
• Intrum Chief Executive Officer Mikael Ericson says the survey reveals “that consumers feel under increasing financial stress.” In an interview, he said one key problem is that the level of knowledge is too low, and called for more education about finance.
• Intrum surveyed 24,004 consumers in 24 countries during September.

--With assistance from Zoe Schneeweiss.

To contact the reporters on this story: Niklas Magnusson in Stockholm at nmagnusson1@bloomberg.net;Hanna Hoikkala in Stockholm at hhoikkala@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Tasneem Hanfi Brögger at tbrogger@bloomberg.net, Kati Pohjanpalo

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