The fastest growth rate was registered in Romania, where 16 per cent of people above 15 years of age have a personal loan, compared to three per cent four years ago.
In Croatia, the number of people who have taken out a loan has doubled to 22 per cent since 2001, but at the same time the volume of savings has declined from 38 per cent to 26 per cent.
Serbia and Montenegro also experienced a high loan borrowing rate, with the number of people using loans increasing from three per cent in 2001 to nine per cent in 2005.
As for the volume of savings, strong declines were also reported in Slovakia, from 67 per cent to 56 per cent, and in the Czech Republic, from 62 per cent to 56 per cent.
"The reasons for this trend are simple: as in Western Europe, people want to enjoy life, they focus on consumption and want to buy things -- here and now. Therefore wages and salaries remain in bank accounts for daily availability instead of being transferred to savings accounts as in the past," the bank's market research analyst Martin Mayr said.
"If there are not sufficient funds in the account, people take out small loans to buy TV sets or personal computers. Demand for such types of loans is growing steadily," Mayr concluded.