AGL 40.80 Increased By ▲ 0.60 (1.49%)
AIRLINK 130.39 Increased By ▲ 1.28 (0.99%)
BOP 6.33 Decreased By ▼ -0.27 (-4.09%)
CNERGY 4.16 Increased By ▲ 0.13 (3.23%)
DCL 8.75 Increased By ▲ 0.30 (3.55%)
DFML 42.48 Increased By ▲ 1.23 (2.98%)
DGKC 87.90 Increased By ▲ 0.90 (1.03%)
FCCL 33.70 Increased By ▲ 0.35 (1.05%)
FFBL 66.30 Increased By ▲ 0.40 (0.61%)
FFL 10.64 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (0.95%)
HUBC 112.70 Increased By ▲ 2.00 (1.81%)
HUMNL 15.81 Increased By ▲ 0.58 (3.81%)
KEL 4.85 Increased By ▲ 0.07 (1.46%)
KOSM 8.02 Increased By ▲ 0.19 (2.43%)
MLCF 42.10 Increased By ▲ 0.20 (0.48%)
NBP 61.15 Increased By ▲ 0.65 (1.07%)
OGDC 191.00 Increased By ▲ 8.20 (4.49%)
PAEL 25.73 Increased By ▲ 0.37 (1.46%)
PIBTL 7.26 Increased By ▲ 1.00 (15.97%)
PPL 149.65 Increased By ▲ 1.84 (1.24%)
PRL 25.40 Increased By ▲ 0.84 (3.42%)
PTC 16.50 Increased By ▲ 0.26 (1.6%)
SEARL 71.00 Increased By ▲ 0.50 (0.71%)
TELE 7.40 Increased By ▲ 0.10 (1.37%)
TOMCL 36.30 No Change ▼ 0.00 (0%)
TPLP 8.07 Increased By ▲ 0.22 (2.8%)
TREET 16.60 Increased By ▲ 1.30 (8.5%)
TRG 51.60 Decreased By ▼ -0.10 (-0.19%)
UNITY 27.40 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (0.18%)
WTL 1.28 Increased By ▲ 0.05 (4.07%)
BR100 9,954 Increased By 111.9 (1.14%)
BR30 30,618 Increased By 582 (1.94%)
KSE100 93,415 Increased By 894.1 (0.97%)
KSE30 29,041 Increased By 254.4 (0.88%)

Australians lead the world in personal debt, with the value of what households owe exceeding the value of what the entire economy produces.Reserve Bank of Australia figures released Sunday showed Australia had overtaken the United States in terms of debt racked up on mortgages, bank borrowing and on credit cards.
The central bank said the average US adult owed 44,000 US dollars against 56,000 US dollars for the average Australian adult. The value of personal debt is now larger than gross domestic product, which measures the annual value of the goods and services the economy produces. Lending for housing accounts for 90 per cent of personal debt, with the remainder made up by overdrafts and credit card debt.
Research firm Fujitsu Consulting estimated the average household pays 39 per cent of its income on servicing and repaying debt.
With the cost of borrowing set to rise as soon as January, the burden of debt servicing is set to get even more onerous. Interest rates now start at 3.75 per cent, after three consecutive increases. As with individuals, so with the government: Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has maxed out the national credit card. Australia went into the global financial crisis without government debt and riding high on a mining boom powered by demand from China.
But stimulus spending of 42 billion Australian dollars (36 billion US dollars) - one of the biggest packages relative to population in the developed world - has erased the surplus and taken the national accounts heavily into deficit.

Copyright Deutsche Presse-Agentur, 2009

Comments

Comments are closed.