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Dutch carry the least personal loan debts from all Europeans


Tags: Excerpts from the Windmill

AMSTERDAM - Only six percent of the Dutch are overdrawn at the bank or have taken out a personal loan. Their number ranks lowest of all countries in the European Union. Only sixteen percent of the Dutch think that getting a loan is useful, against three quarters of the Italians. A majority of the Dutch consider borrowing risky, and thus stay away from it. At the opposite end are the Irish and Danes who are EU’s leaders when it comes to borrowing or being overdrawn, with respective percentages of 18 and 21. The Dutch living on overdrafts –rood staan-however have amassed more debt this year. About three million bank accounts are overdrawn to the tune of 7.4 billion euro this year, 400 million euro more than last year.