Risers and fallers - The Banker
The big surprise is Moldova, a small eastern European country with a gross domestic product (GDP) per capita of just $1830, ranks fifth. Moldova has very low levels of debt ($763 per capita, compared with the UK’s $171,000 per capita), and its banks have high capital-to-asset ratios of more than 17% and low levels of lending.
Fewer loans
According to the World Bank, banks in Moldova have extended loans worth just 35% of GDP, compared with the US, where domestic bank lending has reached 230% of GDP. Moldova pays just 2.8% of public sector revenues to service government debt but Italy, for example, spends 11.9% of government revenues on interest payments.