Rising household debt a worry on prospect of higher interest rates, NZIER says

Thu, 02 Mar 2017

By Paul McBeth March 2 (BusinessDesk) - New Zealand households are now borrowing more relative to their disposable incomes than they did before the global financial crisis when a red-hot housing market was encouraging consumers to tack a little onto the mortgage to pay for big ticket purchases. Kiwi household debt is now a record 167 percent as a proportion of disposable income, and New Zealand Institute of Economic Research senior economist Christina Leung says that's a key risk to the economy. Reserve Bank data show total household bor...

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