Consumer Credit as Lifestyle Activities Facilitators for Consumers of Bangladesh

Ataur Rahman

doi:10.5539/ijms.v1n2p114

Abstract

As middle class and fixed income group in Bangladesh are not solvent enough to pay the price of an essential product (TV, fridge etc.) at a time from their savings. They need consumer credit to buy these products for doing their lifestyle activities. The purpose of the study is to identify the consumer credit impacts on lifestyle activities of consumers of Bangladesh. 576 respondents in a survey were asked to rate the importance of 15 lifestyle activities variables related to consumer credit. These data were tested via factor analysis (the principal components method with varimax rotation) by using SPSS program. The results show that people borrow money to buy household goods to do their work, entertainment activities and social activities. The thesis will make contribution to our understanding that people need consumer credit to facilitate their lifestyle activities.

Highlights

With the prevailing economic scenario in a developing country like Bangladesh, we can safely say that a sizeable portion of our population is coming up as a consumer class every year
For identifying consumer credit impacts on lifestyle activities, respondents in a survey were asked to indicate their degree of agreement with 15 statements/ variables using a 5-point likert scale (1=strongly disagree, 5=strongly agree).These data were analyzed via principal components analysis
The factor analysis using the principal components method with varimax rotation was run to determine the underlying benefits consumers seek of their lifestyle activities(work performance, entertainment activities, social activities) from the use of household goods (TV, fridge, furniture etc.) borrowed by consumer credit

Summary

Introduction

With the prevailing economic scenario in a developing country like Bangladesh, we can safely say that a sizeable portion of our population is coming up as a consumer class every year. Middle class and lower middle class people especially the salaried professionals of our country usually cannot afford to buy essential household durables (like TV, fridge, furniture, sofa-set etc.) to enhance the lifestyle activities after fulfillment of their basic needs(National Bank Bangladesh Ltd., 2006). In this situation, credit is necessary for them to buy household goods. Soon several other banks joined and today 19 of the 48 commercial banks offer consumer credit services (Bangladesh Banks, 2006)

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Methods

Results

Conclusion