In Croatia, interest rates have not risen as in other member states, which of course favored citizens to take on additional debt.

However, banks operating in Croatia have announced record-high business figures and profits. They seem to have not had enough with all their record profits so far, as they are now announcing increases in account maintenance fees to ensure even better earnings.

Think carefully about your business decisions, especially financial ones.

We would have been better off as a society if interest rates had risen more, so we would have borrowed less and taken out fewer expensive non-purpose loans, especially since the reasons for taking them out are often poor and somewhat bizarre.

Wanting to maintain the same standard of living as before inflation, because our salaries did not keep up, we took out expensive non-purpose loans, maxed out credit cards, and incurred debt, thereby enabling these top-notch results in the banking sector.

The car market grew by 30% last year. For the first time in Croatia, more than 190,000 vehicles were registered.

Over 135,000 used vehicles were imported, while only 43,800 were newly registered. Both individuals and legal entities import used vehicles without exception.

All these factors have contributed to a record increase in non-purpose cash loans taken out by households.

It is precisely with such decisions that our society is becoming poorer, while large companies and banks reap record profits and achieve never-before-seen earnings.