Statistics Canada says household debt ratio edged lower in second quarter

Income grew faster than debt, agency reports

Statistics Canada says household income grew slightly faster than debt in the second quarter, resulting in a slightly lower debt-to-income ratio.

The agency says credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income edged down to 177.1% on a seasonally adjusted basis, compared with about 177.5% in the first quarter.

In other words, Canadians owed roughly $1.77 in credit market debt, which includes consumer credit, mortgages and non-mortgage loans, for every dollar of household disposable income.

On a seasonally adjusted basis, total credit market borrowing increased to $23.5 billion from $18.9 billion in the previous quarter.

Credit market debt totalled $2.25 trillion in the second quarter including nearly $1.47 trillion in mortgage debt and $782.9 billion in consumer credit and non-mortgage loans.

The household debt service ratio, measured as total obligated payments of principal and interest on credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income, edged up to 14.93% in the second quarter.