Households in the United States continue to accumulate debt and by the end of 2022, the accumulated household debt already totaled $16.9 billion dollars.
The data is part of the quarterly report on household debt and credit from the Federal Reserve Bank of New York (Fed), released this week.
Only during the fourth quarter of the year, households totaled $394 billion in debtwhich represented 2.4% more compared to the data for the third quarter of 2022.
Although inflation in the United States began to decline during the second half of the year, the prices of products and services have remained high for the vast majority of US consumers.
In its report, the Fed warned that, although a significant part of household debt corresponds to mortgage loans, credit card balances are rising at record rates.
But not only that, but the Fed report in New York warned that the delinquency rate, that is, of people with credit card debts that do not even pay the minimum balancesis also increasing.
In this regard, the report showed that credit card balances increased to $986 million dollars during the fourth quarter of the year, which was 6.6% higher compared to the previous quarter.
However, in the annual measurement, the indebtedness rate practically doubles, reaching 15.2% at the end of last year.
“It’s a triple problem for credit card borrowers. Balances went up, rates went up, and more people have credit card debtTed Rossman, a senior industry analyst at Bankrate, said in a statement.
According to analysts, the strong job market has allowed consumers to continue buying products and paying for services; however, with inflation still at high levels and interest rates also in high ranges, credit has been the only recourse that households have found to maintain their spending.
However, this has caused delinquency rates to rise in virtually all debt items, including credit cards and auto loans.
For generations, credit card holders between the ages of 20 and 30, the so-called Generation Z, have the highest rates of late payment of debts, mainly focused on credit cards and car loans.
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Source: La Opinion
