Mortgage borrowing has risen and disposable income has fallen, said Statistics Canada.
The level of Canadian household debt relative to disposable income hit a record high in the fourth quarter as mortgage borrowing rose and disposable income fell, Statistics Canada said Friday.
Household credit market debt as a share of household disposable income rose to 186.2% in the fourth quarter, seasonally adjusted, from a revised reading of 180.4% for the third quarter, the report said. x27;federal agency. In other words, there was $1.86 of credit market debt for every dollar of disposable household income.
According to Statistics Canada, this debt ratio was 181.1% at the end of 2019, before the pandemic, while the previous record was 184.7%, in the third quarter of 2018.
The increase in the fourth quarter came as household credit market debt rose 1.9% and household disposable income fell 1.3%.
On a seasonally adjusted basis, households added $50.0 billion in debt in the fourth quarter, including $46.3 billion in mortgages and $3.7 billion in non-mortgage loans.
The household debt-service ratio, which assesses the total obligatory payments of principal and interest on credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income households, increased to 13.84% in the fourth quarter of 2021, from 13.55% in the third quarter.
