No money, mo' problems: Canadians are falling deeper into debt this year
New data from Statistics Canada reveals Canadians are falling further into debt this year.
According to the national balance sheet released Monday, the household credit card debt to disposable income ratio rose to 181.7% in Q2 2022. This is up from 179.7% in Q1.
In other words, the average Canadian now owes $1.82 for every dollar of household disposable income. It may not sound like a lot, but keep in mind this number is just the average.
This should come as no surprise since Canada has broken a four-decade record with yearly inflation peaking at 7.7%.
Stat Can says household credit market debt (consumer credit, and mortgage and non-mortgage loans) grew 2.1% to $2,760.3 billion in the second quarter. Canadian households added a near-record $56.3 billion of debt, while $48.7 billion of that was fuelled by mortgages.
Despite national home sales declining 5.6% month-over-month, mortgage debt surpassed $2 trillion to reach $2,044.2 billion in Q2.
Apart from the second quarter of 2021, this was the fastest pace of growth in total credit market debt since Q4 2009, Stat Can says.
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