June 8 (SeeNews) - Slovenia's central bank will relax the creditworthiness requirements for lending to consumers as of July 1 to adjust them to a rise in the minimum gross monthly wage and inflation, it said.
The level of minimum creditworthiness will be lowered to a monthly income of 745 euro from 915 euro, while child allowances and other social benefits, which have been excluded until now, will be taken into account in the calculation of the borrowers' annual income, the central bank said in a statement on Wednesday.
With the change, the central bank aims to eliminate the impact of the rise in the minimum gross salary on the creditworthiness of borrowers and solve the problem of limited access to credit for borrowers with incomes up to the average salary, it explained.
At the end of March, the Slovenian parliament amended the act on macroprudential supervision of the financial system as the creditworthiness of borrowers with incomes up to the average salary had significantly decreased when the minimum gross wage was raised to 1,203 euro ($1,289) from 1,074 euro in January.
The current binding macroprudential measure related to consumer lending restrictions has been in force since November 2019 and aims to establish minimum credit standards for new loans and limit consumer over-indebtedness.
($ = 0.9331 euro)