The total debt of Americans rose by 312 billion from April to June, compared to the end of the first quarter (+2%), to reach 16,150 billion. This is 2,000 billion more than at the end of 2019.
US households borrowed more in the second quarter, in particular because of inflation, according to a survey published on Tuesday, but late payments, which had been very low since the start of the pandemic, are on the rise once more .
“Americans are borrowing more, but much of the increase in borrowing is attributable to rising prices,” detail the New York Fed researchers responsible for this study, on a blog.
Total household debt rose by $312 billion from April to June, compared to the end of the first quarter (+2%), to reach $16,150 billion. This is 2 trillion dollars more than at the end of 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
But “historically low rates of late repayments are coming to an end,” the economists warn in the blog.
The generous financial aid from the federal government had allowed American households to save a lot during the pandemic. These “having mostly expired, some borrowers are beginning to show difficulty in repaying their debt”.
The delays are mostly in credit card and car loan repayments, especially for low-income households.
Inflation reached 9.1% over one year in June in the United States, a record for more than 40 years.
To curb it, the central bank, the Fed, is tightening its monetary policy, which is pushing up interest rates on household and corporate loans, so that they consume and invest less, and, ultimately, ease the pressure on prices.
But with this voluntary slowdown in economic activity, fears of recession have grown.
In detail in the second quarter, the total amount of outstanding mortgages is now 11.390 billion dollars, 207 billion more than three months earlier, and 945 billion more than a year ago.
Auto loans are also climbing (+33 billion dollars compared to the end of March, to 1,500 billion).
Same trend for consumer loans, widely used via credit cards (+46 billion to 890 billion dollars), the increase of which is 13% since the second quarter of 2021, “the largest for more than 20 years” , details the New York Fed.
Student loans, on the other hand, remained essentially the same, at 1.590 billion dollars.