Worrying statistics regarding the financial stability of Israel’s private households came to light on Tuesday when the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that almost half of Israeli households were using their overdraft credit in their banks.

According to a report that was issued by the Central Bureau of Statistics on Tuesday, more than 42 percent of households have reported having overdraft in their accounts at least once over the past 12 months.

Among them, 29 percent of households reported having loans that are not related to mortgages with the average loan being 96,200 NIS.

22 percent of the households reported that they have had overdraft during 10 of the 12 months of the year, and 26 percent of Israeli households were notified by their banks at least once that they have exceeded their allotted credit limit. Some 60,000 households reported that their bank had frozen their accounts at least once over the past year.

Another 69,400 households in Israel had no bank account at all. The majority of these are Arab households.

While 71 percent of households reported having some form of savings, the majority of those savings, were pension plans and not liquid assets.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)