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8 July 2004
BRUSSELS – One in four Belgian people has trouble paying all of his or her bills, it was reported on Thursday.
Citing a report carried out last month by the consultancy Trendbox, La Libre Belgique said that around 25 percent of Belgians pay at least some of their bills late.
The figure has increased since 2001, when around one in five Belgians confessed to finding it hard to pay all of their bills.
According to Trendbox, the main reasons so many Belgians are finding it hard to make ends meet are unemployment, divorce and an inability to make loan repayments.
The study also found that Belgians prioritise the bills they pay.
Few Belgians delay paying their dentists or doctors or making repayments on house loans.
The bills they tend to put off paying are credit card repayments and fines, Trendbox reported.
The late payment situation in Belgium is different to that in the neighbouring Netherlands, according to the study.
There, only 17 percent of citizens have problems paying bills on time.
[Copyright Expatica 2004]
Subject: Belgian news