Bulgarian household wealth amounted to 33.5 bln leva as at the end of the third quarter of 2008, a survey, conducted by Industry Watch, shows.

Household wealth growth slowed down to 16%, compared 23% in the second quarter. Despite the decline, the growth rate exceeds the inflation rate in the country.

The net financial wealth, which excludes households' debts to banks stood at 23.3 bln leva as at the end of September 2008. The net financial growth has slowed down even more as the credit expansion continues to outpace the savings.

The household wealth has grown by 10% compared to the third quarter of 2007, the data showed.

Household wealth includes financial assets and real estate properties, cash, bank deposits, government securities, shares and assets under management in mutual funds pension and life insurance products. It does not include cash in foreign currency, deposits in banks abroad and investments in foreign stock exchanges.

The share of deposits as part of the household wealth rose by nearly 5 percentage points compared to the third quarter of 2007, which means that more people prefer banks. The share of investments in equities shrunk from 5.6% to 2.4%, which may be put down mainly to the capital markets' slump.

Deposits accounted for 88% of household wealth as at the end of September 2008, while the 28-percent year-on-year growth in the third quarter remains relatively high.

Bulgarian households are expected to be less affected by the crisis. A comparison between the assets in Bulgaria and the euro area shows that Bulgarians have only 12% of their assets in speculative instruments and the remaining 88% are held in deposits and cash. Investments in equities and mutual funds in the euro area were seven and ten times higher, respectively.