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Monthly credit aggregates, January 2022

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Released: 2022-03-22

Household borrowing

Household mortgage debt rose 0.5% to reach $1,965.8 billion in January 2022, an increase of $10.2 billion from December 2021.

On an unadjusted basis, while the volume of existing home sales decreased in January, a relatively quieter month for this activity, the average sale price climbed to roughly $750,000 on rising home prices. According to the New Housing Price Index, new home prices for Canada grew by 0.9% in January 2022. Compared with January 2021, mortgage debt increased 10.6% in January 2022.

Non-mortgage debt was down $4.3 billion (-0.6%) in January to $700.1 billion. Household credit card debt was the principal contributor to the monthly decline, on both a seasonally adjusted and non-seasonally adjusted basis, while retail sales grew 3.2% in January. Households may have made purchases using gift cards or existing savings in the month rather than credit cards. The December 2021 and January 2022 declines in credit card debt more than offset the notable build-up in November 2021. However, on a year-over-year basis, non-mortgage debt grew 1.3%, with a 6.4% increase in household credit card debt.

Overall, the total credit liabilities of households reached $2,665.9 billion in January, edging up 0.2% from December 2021. Real estate secured debt, composed of both mortgage debt and home equity lines of credit, stood at $2,132.4 billion. On a seasonally adjusted basis, total credit liabilities of households rose 0.6%.

Household sector borrowing is divided into financing in the form of non-mortgage loans, or funds principally for consumption, and mortgage loans, or debt acquired to finance the purchase of a property.

Chart 1  Chart 1: Month-over-month change in household mortgage loans
Month-over-month change in household mortgage loans

Private non-financial corporation borrowing

Total non-mortgage loan liabilities of private non-financial corporations increased by $6.1 billion (+0.8%) to $796.5 billion in January 2022. This amount was split between non-mortgage loans provided by chartered banks (+$5.9 billion) and non-banks (+$0.2 billion). With the Canadian Emergency Business Account program ended and repayments continuing, the stock of government non-mortgage loan assets edged down (-0.1%).

In terms of debt securities, private non-financial corporations recorded net retirements of $822 million in January, mainly in the form of short-term instruments (i.e., paper).

The mortgage debt of private non-financial corporations rose 0.5% (+$1.6 billion) to reach $343.7 billion. Overall, total credit liabilities (i.e., loans and debt securities) of private non-financial corporations surpassed $1.8 trillion, an increase of 0.9% (+$16.6 billion) in January.

Chart 2  Chart 2: Changes in stock of non-mortgage loans to private non-financial corporations, by lender
Changes in stock of non-mortgage loans to private non-financial corporations, by lender

  Note to readers

Revisions

This release of the monthly credit aggregates for the first month of 2022 includes revised estimates from January to December 2021. These data incorporate new and revised data, as well as updated data on seasonal trends.

Overview of the monthly credit aggregates

The monthly credit aggregates break down a portion of the quarterly national balance sheet accounts (NBSA) by month. They provide details on lending to households and non-financial corporations—in other words, the stock of these sectors' outstanding liabilities from the debtor perspective—across a range of credit instruments, including mortgage loans, non-mortgage loans, and debt and equity securities. The aggregates cover all lending sectors, including chartered banks, non-bank deposit-taking institutions, other financial corporations, government and other lenders. The estimates are presented as booked-in-Canada to capture activity within Canada, with either domestic or non-resident lenders. In addition, amounts are reported on an end-of-period basis (i.e., the value of the stock of an asset on the final day of the month). The third month of each quarter is benchmarked to the corresponding quarterly release of the NBSA.

The NBSA are composed of the balance sheets of all sectors and subsectors of the economy. The main sectors are households, non-profit institutions serving households, financial corporations, non-financial corporations, government and non-residents. The NBSA cover all national non-financial assets and all financial asset-liability claims outstanding in all sectors and, similarly, they present stocks at the end of each quarter.

Estimates are available on a seasonally adjusted basis to improve the interpretability of period-to-period changes in debt. For information on seasonal adjustment, see Seasonally adjusted data – Frequently asked questions.

For more information on the concepts, methodologies and classifications used to compile these monthly estimates, please see the document "Guide to the Monthly Credit Aggregates."

Next release

Data on the monthly credit aggregates for February will be released on April 19.

Products

As a complement to this release, the documents "Guide to the Monthly Credit Aggregates" and "An overview of revisions to the Financial and Wealth Accounts, 1990 to 2020," which are part of Latest Developments in the Canadian Economic Accounts (Catalogue number13-605-X), are available.

As a complement to this release, the data visualization products "Financial accounts on a from-whom-to-whom basis, selected financial instruments," "Distributions of Household Economic Accounts, Wealth: Interactive tool" and "Securities statistics," which are part of Statistics Canada – Data Visualization Products (Catalogue number71-607-X), are also available.

The Economic accounts statistics portal, accessible from the Subjects module of the Statistics Canada website, provides an up-to-date portrait of national and provincial economies and their structure.

The User Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-606-G) is available.

The Methodological Guide: Canadian System of Macroeconomic Accounts (Catalogue number13-607-X) is available.

Contact information

For more information, or to enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact us (toll-free 1-800-263-1136; 514-283-8300; infostats@statcan.gc.ca) or Media Relations (statcan.mediahotline-ligneinfomedias.statcan@statcan.gc.ca).

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