Analytics, EU – Baltic States, Financial Services, Lithuania, Statistics

International Internet Magazine. Baltic States news & analytics Friday, 29.03.2024, 02:10

EU survey puts Lithuanian's average net household wealth at EUR 84,300

BC, Vilnius, 13.07.2020.Print version
Lithuanian households' net wealth averages 84,300 euros, well below the European average of 229,200 euros, but wealth inequality in the country is among the lowest in Europe, writes LETA/BNS, according to the European Household Finance and Consumption Survey.

The difference does not seem surprising, given that while households in the EU's old member countries accumulated their wealth in a market economy in the second half of the 20th century, those in Lithuania and other post-Soviet countries did so in a centralized planned economy, the Bank of Lithuania said in a press release on Monday.  


The survey reveals that households in the bottom 40 percent of the wealth distribution in Lithuania have more net wealth than those in many other European countries, it noted.


For example, the average net wealth of Lithuanian households in the bottom 20 percent amounts to 8,500 euros, while the average indicator in the euro area is a negative 4,500 euros. 


Another factor that distinguishes Lithuania from other European countries is its low share of households that purchased their homes with a mortgage – at 10.4 percent. This compares with the euro area average of 20.5 percent. 


As much as 82.8 percent of Lithuanian households own homes without any mortgage debt, well above the euro area average of 39.8 percent. 


Lithuania's homeownership rate, at 93.2 percent, is the highest in the euro area where the average stands at 60.2 percent.  


Financial assets account for a mere 4.7 percent of the total household assets in Lithuania, compared with the euro area average of 19.1 percent.  


The high share of non-financial assets and the relatively more even distribution of these assets are the main reasons why Lithuania's wealth inequality indicator is among the lowest in Europe, the central bank said.


The rather unexpected results of the wealth inequality survey are in sharp contrast to Lithuania's income inequality indicators that remain among the highest in Europe, it noted. 


In the other two Baltic states, Latvia and Estonia, the distribution of income among households is slightly more even than in Lithuania, but they have much higher wealth inequality, according to the press release. 






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