Interest rates may be coming down but debt levels are not.
The latest tally of borrowing by people across the country is from February and it shows debt growth was actually accelerating from the pace we set in January.
Canadians now owe just over $3 trillion dollars. This is personal debt. Corporate debt is measured separately and that one is following the same track…accelerating from the January pace.
What’s interesting about this report is how we are borrowing. It’s all about mortgages and lines of credit.
Canadians were watching their credit card spending a bit in February and the rate of growth was actually unchanged from January.
But that is not the story on using residential property to facilitate borrowing. Outstanding mortgage levels – this includes lines of credit – grew by nearly $10 billion in the month, roughly 5-percent faster than the previous month. And this came at a time when interest rates were dropping or holding steady.
On the corporate side, total debt stood at $2.25 trillion but it too was growing at a faster pace in February than the previous month.
