Halle/Neuss (dpa/sa) – In Saxony-Anhalt, the number of over-indebted private individuals has continued to fall. During the corona pandemic, people had fewer payment obligations. In view of the currently high energy prices, consumers would also put off consumer spending and exercise caution, explained Martin Plath, authorized signatory at Creditreform in Halle. The credit agency presented its “Debt Atlas 2022” on Tuesday. According to this, around 208,380 consumers in Saxony-Anhalt were overindebted as of October 1st, around 8,200 fewer than in the previous year.

In 2021, around 216,640 private individuals in Saxony-Anhalt were over-indebted. According to Creditreform, this means that a person’s income is no longer sufficient to be able to meet their financial obligations in the long term. Meanwhile, according to Creditreform, the number of over-indebted people in Germany has fallen to a record low this year.

However, given the current skyrocketing energy and food prices, the credit agency expects the situation to deteriorate noticeably in the near future. The credit agency (Neuss/North Rhine-Westphalia) counted almost 5.9 million over-indebted people in Germany in 2022, around 274,000 or 4.4 percent fewer than in the previous year. This is the lowest value since the start of the evaluation in 2004.