Title: Country-wide protests and financial stability

Authors: Peterson K. Ozili

Addresses: Central Bank of Nigeria, Plot 33, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa Way, Central Business District, Abuja, FCT, Nigeria

Abstract: This paper investigates the effect of country-wide protests on financial stability after controlling for inflation rate and the level of political stability. Country-wide protests may pressure a powerful government to listen and meet the demands of relatively less powerful groups, but country-wide protests can be destructive, especially when such protests lead to the destruction of the business assets of the clients of financial institutions, thereby making it difficult for them to meet their loan repayment and other obligations to financial institutions, and posing risk to the stability of the financial system. Financial stability and country-wide protests data were analysed for the UK. The empirical results show that bank non-performing loans are higher in country-wide protests years, implying that country-wide protests have a significant negative impact on financial stability through high non-performing loans in years where there are country-wide protests.

Keywords: financial stability; UK; protest; demonstrations; non-performing loans; country-wide protests.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSE.2025.142912

International Journal of Sustainable Economy, 2025 Vol.17 No.1, pp.1 - 25

Received: 09 Mar 2023
Accepted: 01 May 2023
Published online: 02 Dec 2024 *

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