On Distributional Changes of Financial Characteristics in Cyprus: What Does the Survey of Consumer

This work is based on the Cyprus Survey of Consumer Finances (CySCF) and focuses on one hand on the composition of household assets in Cyprus based on the 2002 Cyprus Survey of Consumer Finances (CySCF2002) and on the other on the distributional changes between the 1999 and the 2002 CySCFs. From 1999 to 2002 there has been a radical increase of household participation in direct stockholding. This is due to the fact that there was a boom of the stock market with a remarkable increase of 688% during 1999, which, however, deflated dramatically during 2000 by 65%. In the same period a 50% increase in the share of households with loans backed by real estate other than their primary residences was observed. Furthermore, real estate prices rose sharply in most areas and affected to a great extent the net wealth so that a more than 7.5% increase was observed in the mean value of the net wealth from 1999 to 2002. Finally, the work deals with the econometric analysis of debts, and results based on probit models are provided. The variables selected are age, family size, employment status and income. The typical 2002 individual was identified as a 45-year old self-employed, married person with 3 children with a annual income of 18000 Cyprus pounds (1CY £ = 1.7 Euros). For the 2002 typical individual the probability of being in debt is found to be 66.5%.