A small boy with enormous eyes pushes a beat-up bike through the unpaved streets of Hlaing Tharyar, a township outside of Rangoon. In his hand, he clasps the equivalent of just over $1.70 in grubby local kyat notes. His name is Chit Thaw and he just turned eleven. This morning he is headed to the local pawnshop.
For Chit Thaw, borrowing money is a daily chore. His first loan takes place before breakfast, when he borrows 5,000 kyat (around $5) from a neighbour. It must be paid back with 10 per cent interest by the end of the day – which works out to a staggering annual percentage rate of 3,650 per cent. Without a regulated system for borrowing money, the vast majority of Burmese people have no access to formal credit at all. Informal moneylenders and pawnshops are at the heart of half the population’s lives.
