Figures released by Statistics Canada showed many Canadian households were still very much in the red to begin the year, though not as badly as last year.
The agency's quarterly report on the nation's balance sheet showed Canadians owed $1.67 in consumer credit, mortgages and non-mortgage loans for every dollar of household disposable income in the first quarter of 2017, a slight quarterly decrease as household net worth rose from the end of 2016.
The nation's number-crunchers warn that that ratio still increased on an annual basis, however. In the first quarter of 2016, Canadians owed about $1.64 per dollar of disposable income.
The value of non-financial assets grew 1.7% on a quarterly basis and 7.7% annually, which StatsCan attributed to a strong real estate market.
Total mortgage debt reached $1.341 trillion in the quarter, compared to consumer credit debt of $595.3 billion
Household income grew 0.9% quarter-over-quarter, outpacing the 0.7% quarterly growth in household credit market debt.
Per capita, Canadian household net worth was $287,700 in the first three months of the year. Household sector net worth rose 2.2% in the first three months of the calendar year to $10.533 trillion at market value, as the value of financial assets increased.
Household net worth captures the value of financial and non-financial assets, including housing, mutual funds, and bank deposits excluding liabilities
