Despite policymakers’ attempts to cool down Canadian household borrowing, falling interest rates this year have convinced consumers to jump right back into the red. Statistics Canada reported Friday that household borrowing rose 31.4 per cent between the second and third quarters of this year. Both mortgages and consumer credit (lines of credit and credit cards) saw sharp increases. “As such, household debt burdens will remain a crucial vulnerability for the Canadian economy for some time,” Bank of Montreal economist Priscilla Thiagamoorthy wrote in a client note Friday. As a share of income, Canadians’ debt rose to just under $1.76 for every dollar of disposable income.

Source: Huffington Post December 13, 2019 16:25 UTC