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Monthly credit aggregates, May 2023

Released: 2023-07-20

Household borrowing

In May, the total credit liabilities of households (including mortgage and non-mortgage loan debt) reached $2,857.8 billion, edging up 0.2% for the third consecutive month. Real estate secured debt, composed of both mortgage debt and home equity lines of credit, increased 0.1% (+$3.2 billion) to reach $2,291.2 billion in May.

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

Growth in household mortgage debt slows

Household mortgage debt edged up 0.2% (+$3.6 billion) to reach $2,122.7 billion in May. On an annualized basis, household mortgage debt rose 2.0% in May, the slowest pace of growth since December 2011.

Total existing home sales rose for the fourth consecutive month in May 2023, with sales volumes growing 4.6% and the average sale price increasing 2.7% to roughly $714,000. The average sale price in May represented 90.2% of the peak posted in February 2022.

Chart 2  Chart 2: Year-over-year growth in household mortgage and non-mortgage loans
Year-over-year growth in household mortgage and non-mortgage loans

Households increasing their use of personal loans rather than credit cards to finance their spending

Non-mortgage loan debt advanced 0.4% (+$2.7 billion) in May. On an annualized basis, non-mortgage loan liabilities rose 4.6% in May, an acceleration in the pace of growth for the second consecutive month. In contrast with previous months, the higher growth of non-mortgage loan debt was not attributable to credit card debt with chartered banks, which increased 1.1% in May, down from an increase of 1.5% in April. Rather, the acceleration in non-mortgage loan debt in May was driven by personal loan plans (+0.7% in May, up from +0.4% in April) and other personal loans (+0.8%, up from -0.4% in April). Conversely, outstanding balances on home equity lines of credit decreased 0.2% in May, after edging down 0.1% in April.

With the policy interest rate reaching 5.0% in July 2023, up 50 basis points from May, some households may face additional financial pressures as they continue to access credit to fund their spending, especially for more vulnerable groups. According to the latest estimates from the Distributions of Household Economic Accounts, annual growth in non-mortgage debt in the first quarter of 2023 continued to be strongest for the lowest 40% of wealth holders (+4.6%) and for those aged 35 to 44 years (+3.3%).

Private non-financial corporation borrowing

Growth in non-mortgage loans remains stable

In May, total credit liabilities (i.e., loans and debt securities) of private non-financial corporations rose 0.2% to surpass $2 trillion ($2,004.0 billion), representing a deceleration from April (+0.4%).

Total non-mortgage loan liabilities of private non-financial corporations rose 0.3% (+$2.9 billion) to reach $919.3 billion in May, continuing the pace of growth in April (+0.3%). Non-mortgage loans from chartered banks rose 0.5% (+$3.2 billion) in May, while those from non-banks edged down 0.1% (-$0.3 billion).

Chart 3  Chart 3: Private non-financial corporation borrowing
Private non-financial corporation borrowing

Government non-mortgage loans to private non-financial corporations decreased 0.8% to $53.7 billion in May, a decline of 17.5% (-$11.4 billion) since the end of June 2021 (when the application period for the Canadian Emergency Business Account program closed).

On a seasonally unadjusted basis, private non-financial corporations recorded net issuances in debt securities in May 2023 (+$1.0 billion), following net issuances in April (+$2.4 billion). Net issuances of long-term instruments (+$3.4 billion) in May were partially offset by net retirements of short-term instruments (-$2.4 billion).

Overall borrowing by private non-financial corporations, composed of the increase in the outstanding level of seasonally unadjusted loans and the net issuances of debt securities, was $5.3 billion in May, lower than the $8.6 billion recorded in April.

  Note to readers

Unless otherwise stated, this release presents data adjusted for seasonality.

Annualized percentage changes shown in this release are calculated by taking the seasonally adjusted value for a given debt item and applying the following formula: (((debt[m]/debt[m-1]) ^ 12 - 1) * 100), where "m" is the reference month.

Revisions

This release of the monthly credit aggregates for the month of May 2023 includes revised estimates from January 2022 to April 2023. 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.

Household sector borrowing is divided into financing in the form of non-mortgage loans (i.e., funds principally for consumption) and mortgage loans (i.e., debt acquired to finance the purchase of a property, whether residential or non-residential in nature). Household borrowing in the form of mortgage debt and home equity lines of credit is referred to as real estate secured debt and presents a further delineation of household liabilities associated with residential and non-residential properties.

As with the household sector, non-financial corporation borrowing is divided into non-mortgage and mortgage loans. However, overall credit liabilities of non-financial corporations also include their borrowing in the form of debt securities, with terms to maturity that are both short term and long term in duration.

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, 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 June will be released on August 18.

Products

As a complement to this release, the documents "Guide to the Monthly Credit Aggregates" and "A preview of revisions to the Financial and Wealth Accounts, 1990 to 2022," 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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