Paper dwells upon critical consideration of contemporary scientific discourse on measuring financial inclusion. The features of existing approaches to data collection on the supply and demand of financial products and services are summarized, with generalization of their methods of obtaining, elements, sources, pros and cons. It is stated that according to this principle a key indicator of financial inclusion – Global Findex is formed, and its components are under consideration with a focus on disadvantages. The level of development of economy and Fintech, financial literacy and financial culture of the population are highlighted as the important aspects in financial inclusion assessment. Measurement of financial inclusion is found to be based on the assessment of groups of indicators such as the availability, level of use and compliance of financial services, the assessment of barriers and the relationship of households with business. The main advantages (comparability, structure, evaluation of exclusion factors) and the existing limitations of measuring financial inclusion (subjectivity, neglect of country characteristics, lack of a comprehensive indicator) are generalized. Authors substantiate key evaluation principles and present indicators of financial inclusion in Ukraine. Paper suggests to consider the assessment in two contexts: on the one hand, by financial market segment, and on the other, by four dimensions: accessibility, prevalence, effects and impact. Given the limited information available to measure financial inclusion at the global and local levels, there is a need for continuous research on the supply of financial services, detailing information from a demand position, on the importance of taking into account access barriers to financial services along with various aspects of socio-economic development.
The rapid growth of financial deepening raises the problem of its effect, beneficial for economic development. This paper aims to demonstrate the relationship between economic growth (GDP per capita growth, GNI per capita) and financial depth (domestic credit to private sector and credit availability) in 142 countries, split into four income groups, over 2000–2020, using correlation analysis and data from the World Bank and the IMF. Besides, a comparative analysis of domestic credit to the private sector, economic freedom, Gini index, total government expenditure and national savings of countries that increased their income group status over 2011–2020 is presented. Financial deepening (increased credit availability and expansion of domestic credit to the private sector) encourages economic growth (via GNI per capita and GDP per capita growth). Although the presence of a nonlinear relationship between economic growth (GDP per capita growth) and financial depth (domestic credit to private sector and credit availability) over 1991–2020 is insufficient, there is a linear relationship between GNI per capita and credit availability, between credit availability and domestic credit to the private sector for the same sample of countries over 2000–2020. Meanwhile, there is a tendency towards a decrease in the correlation between GNI per capita and GDP per capita growth. Given the revealed linear correlation between domestic credit to the private sector and GNI per capita, financial deepening positively impacts income growth, and this dependence strengthens with increasing income levels. Target values of domestic credit to the private sector are proposed for the income group transition. AcknowledgmentThe paper was funded as a part of the “Relationship between financial depth and economic growth in Ukraine” research project (No. 0121U110766), conducted at the State Institution “Institute for Economics and Forecasting of the NAS of Ukraine”.
While financial inclusion is seen as a goal of socio-economic development, there is still no clear understanding of how to measure it. Following this concern, the paper deals with the computation of the financial inclusion index of the Ukrainian economy using an annual dataset spanning from 2008 to 2020 and following the Sarma methodology. The object of the study is a set of indicators of usage, access and quality of financial products and services. The obtained results demonstrate the medium level of financial inclusion. The improvement of financial inclusion is observed in 2012, 2013, 2020 (namely 0.55 – 0.56 in the range of 0 and 1). From 2015 (0.38) till 2018 (0.39), the revealed downward trend affirms that the withdrawal of banks from the market has deteriorated the level of quality and usage of financial products and services. Financial inclusion declined during the cleaning up of the banking system in 2014–2016, just as it did after the global financial crisis in 2009–2010. Despite the development of the payment infrastructure, there is a need to diversify access, increase quality, and quicken the usage of financial products and services due to existing distrust in national financial institutions. Improving financial literacy and consumer protection, and closing regulatory gaps in the non-banking sector are seen as ways to enhance financial inclusion. Thus, financial regulators should establish an upward trend in financial inclusion that will ensure full access to formal financial services and will not adversely affect the stability of financial system.
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