Canadian debt-to-income ratio narrowed slightly in third quarter, says StatsCan

A report from Statistics Canada says that the ratio of Canadian household debt to income narrowed in the third quarter, signalling that Canadians were bringing in more disposable income than they owed in credit debt.

The figure dipped to 179.5 per cent in the third quarter from a revised 179.9 per cent in the second quarter, the agency said Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the household debt service ratio — which measures the total amount of debt payments (including interest) against total disposable income — inched up, indicating that debt payments grew faster than income.

The report also noted several trends related to mortgage payments.

Since the Bank of Canada began its series of interest rate hikes in early 2022, the amount of total mortgage interest payments increased 89.6 per cent.

But there was a decline in the amount of payments that Canadians made on their mortgages, with principal payments down by 16.8 per cent.