Increase Household Debt Levels
At the end of 2013 total household debt was at a 25 year high of $1.84 trillion, the amount of debt owed by households was nearly 1.8 times the amount of disposable income earned by households in that year, (ABS 2014). This significant rise in debt taken on by Australian households can be attributed to favourable macroeconomic conditions and historically low rates of interest and inflation, (Meng, Hoang & Siriwardana 2013).
Favourable macroeconomic conditions:
Prior to the Global Financial Crisis Australia experienced strong economic growth, low levels of unemployment and strong growth in both the housing and share market. This was due to the mining boom and strong demand for Australia’s commodity exports.
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This can be seen through the fisher equation when nominal interest rates are low and inflation rates are low, households are able to borrow more at the same level of repayment costs. This leads to an increase in the average size of new housing loans. The current ‘borrowers market’ along with the governments first home buyers scheme and the vast availability of finance has meant that their has been an increase in the number of first home buyers acquiring debt, therefore increasing household debt levels, (Sheehan 2014).
Risks of high household debt levels
Australian households:
(McGrath 2014), suggests that high levels of household debt result in Australian households being more susceptible to changes in interest rates, changes to household income and other economic shocks. For example if the Australian economy experience a rise in the level of unemployment or a reduction in the level of wages, households with high debt levels will be unable to finance their debt and will eventually default on their loans. This results in consumption spending becoming more sensitive to changes in expectations about future income, resulting in greater levels of uncertainty, (Joye 2014).
Additionally because the majority of household debt in Australia is linked to variable rates, rather than a fixed rate of interest, households a more susceptible to unanticipated changes to the
There is a widespread concern about rising levels of debt. Debt can become disastrous for those who live alone or those families who are already having problems with supporting their family. The people who might be struck by debt, they might have trouble recovering. Debt can cause Americans to lose their homes and stability they need to feed, and shelter their families. Although debt comes upon us Americans quickly, people can see debt as terrible thing to be stuck with. It has many disadvantages that can devastate to people.
In this essay I shall be discussing the factors which influence the level of and access to unsecured debt held by households.
Secondly, in the past few years, household debt has increased rapidly. On one hand, it has deep influence on each Australian. With one dollar earned, one Australian is now in debt for two dollars. Australia’s debt for property is just lower than Switzerland in the whole world and doubles as much as America. Compared with the increase of house debt, salaries of Australians have remained steady, which means people’s capacity to repay debt hasn’t improved. Australians have been recorded low wage growth. From January to March 2017 wages grew just 0.5 percent. Over the previous year, wages grew a total of 1.9 percent. From 2011-2016 wages grew just 13 percent (Anderson 2017). Considering price to income ration index, housing affordability in Australia has broadly declined in the past few years. Nevertheless, it’s very easy for anyone to get loans from the bank. People don’t need strict assessment of credit to get loans and the government has some policy like first home owners scheme to encourage house loans. As the interest rate is at the lowest point in history, any boost of the interest rate would cause hundreds of thousands of households under mortgage depress. In addition, the ease to get loans make more house demand, which eventually make the price going up. If people can only use their incomes to buy properties, the demand would definitely not as high as nowadays. The American house crash
(Kryger, 2014) Therefore loans and importing goods is a popular way to accumulate enough to start or grow a business or investment. When you look at our national saving as a proportion of gross domestic product there is a slight decline, whereas investment has stayed pretty much the same with an even slighter decline. This graph also indicates that during the late 70s and the early 80s people began to save less than what they were investing meaning there has been an increase in borrowings. This graphs also shows that with this decrease in savings and steady investment Australia’s current account deficit has been growing. With decreasing savings Australia’s investments must perform well enough to ensure we'll have the earnings to cover the servicing of the additional debt we're acquiring. Despite the growing current account deficit and the decreasing savings this graph also indicates we aren’t just importing for consumption we are importing for investment. In an attempt to increase savings to secure a reasonable standard of living in retirement for all Australian’s superannuation had become complusory, however these savings are difficult to use for investment purposes. If governments seek to reduce or foreign borrowings they could use Australian’s super as funds instead of
In his article 'Debt and family type in Canada' Matt Hurst leaves us with no room for doubt, that Canada has a major debt problem. Within a quarter of a century (between 1984 and 2009) the average household debt has gone up to 110k. To date, we've not only surpassed the G7 nations in household debt, but we've seen the sharpest rise in debt compared to any other G7 nation.
While interest rates are unlikely to rise significantly in the near future, they could see a dramatic spike in the long term. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the rise in national debt will stagnate economic growth within 10 years. A stagnant economy could retroactively drain government revenue and back the government into a corner of perpetual borrowing. Tapered spending or increased taxes could help us dodge a catastrophic economic meltdown. The CBO’s report took on common conservative arguments, warning that financial aid to the poor leaves them with no incentive to join the workforce while entitlement spending as a whole continues to depress the economy.
In a great world, no one would be into debt, everybody would get more than they spent, and candy cake would not be fattening. In reality, debt appears. Jobs are lost, factories close down, medical problems occur, and school tuition fees are due. Even the perfect family spending budget can fall short sometimes; all these, making quick and longer term borrowing a must. Knowing the benefits and drawbacks of various types of debt will help families make a wise decision about borrowing cash.
A distinction is made between gross and net foreign debt. Gross foreign debt is the total amount of borrowing from non-residents. Net foreign debt is equal to gross foreign debt minus the sum of lending by residents of Australia to non-residents and official reserve assets held by the Reserve Bank. Net foreign debt is the preferred number to look at as it takes into consideration the possible positive impacts that the debt could mean such as borrowings for investment purposes. Gross foreign debt is normally focused by government oppositions to degrade the current government’s schemes. Another differentiation in looking at debt is between the private and public sector. Governments are no different to an individual or family, if you spend more than you earn then you will need to draw from your savings, if you don’t have enough savings you have to borrow. Despite claims that the government is forcing Australia into debt, after the mass spending during WW2 stopped government debt has fallen significantly with the current public sector only holding about 28.6% of Australia’s $955 billion net foreign debt (figures 1 & 8). This relatively low percentage means that while the government is in debt to other countries, as
In Australia compared to Australia income inequality is high. But still, low-income earners are protected by low-income repayment based schemes. While High-income earners repay their debts more rapidly. The difference in America that precipitates the crisis is the system does not moderate repayment in consideration to such significant factors such as income class, the period of repayment and inflation.
The average Australian debt is growing, and the average household debt amount is almost quarter of a million dollars. While a large chunk of this is tied to home ownership, many Australians dread opening their credit card bills each January. Facing up to end-of-year overspending is depressing, but there is a way to avoid this happening again next Christmas, but you have to start thinking about it now.
The onset of summer tends to bring a lull in excitement in financial markets. The media is consequently forced to exaggerate the importance of economic releases over this seemingly mundane period. This year has proven to be no exception. The Financial Times recently reported that US consumer credit growth had surged by $18bn in the three months to June, thereby provoking fears that banks were being reckless and consumers were taking too much debt in a slow economy. These fears constitute a major departure from the worries that prevailed during the financial crisis, when many commentators were forecasting years of household deleveraging. Balance sheet adjustment in the sector would, therefore, act as
Australian economy is booming and faces a main short –term outlook. Australia has a three speed or multi-speed economy that means three different sources makes build the economy strong. Western Australia holds the nation strongest economy growth compared to other states in Australia. “Australia long period of uninterrupted economic growth makes it the Iron Man among the OECD countries” said OECD secretary General Angel Gurria . the table is given below the economic comparison chart with different countries .
This graph indicate that the majority of borrowers have comparatively small amounts of unsecured debt. In 2012, about 23% of borrowers had debts of up to £1,000 and a similar proportion of households 22% were borrowing between £1,000 and £4,000. At the other end of the distribution, 31% of households owed more than £10,000 on unsecured credit and more than one tenth 13% owed over £20,000. The distribution for the amount of unsecured debt has been
This literature review aims to explore existing research on growing household debt in OECD countries. It will focus on the theories, models and research that seek to explain the causes of growing household debt.
- Borrower-spenders may want to invest in excess of their current income or to adjust the composition