...against fictions and other tall tales

Friday 4 March 2011

Debt ratio increasing

Yup, Canada's debt to personal disposable income (second row) has definitely gone up since the early 1990s. It currently stands at approximately 150 percent. Some commentators claim this is normal given that personal net worth is also on the rise (see fifth and seventh row). Hmm...weren't similar comments made in the US before the subprime crisis in 2008? So you know, the rate in the US at the start of the crisis reached 162 percent. At the current rate, Canada could reach that level within 2 years (8 quarters). Another interesting trend shown on this table is the increasing share of real estate as a percentage of disposable income (last row) and the rise in the ratio of financial assets to non-financial assets (row twelve).

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