Bulgaria is home to about 544 000 wealthy families.

Half of these households have a monthly income of 2275 leva and the other half takes in about 1369 leva a month, according to Trud daily.

Kristofor Pavlov, chief economist at UniCredit Bulbank, said that the wealthiest 20 per cent of the population were people obtaining large loans.

UniCredit statistics show that about 180 000 people have taken out loans of 10 000 leva.

This suggests that people with good credit can easily afford monthly installments of 400 leva, and that the lending market in Bulgaria still has a lot of potential.