– Although Norwegian households are still taking on more debt, debt growth continued to fall in March. Over time, households have reduced their demand for credit in line with increased interest rates, Statistics Norway (SSB) writes in a press release.
The twelve-month growth in household debt is at its lowest since 1995. Seasonally adjusted, household debt was NOK 4,320 billion at the end of March.
– It may appear that there was a shift in households’ appetite for debt from around March 2023, and seasonally adjusted monthly growth has been at a lower level over the past year. It is likely that twelve-month growth will remain at about this level in the nearest period.
In recent months, the seasonally adjusted monthly growth has shown a tendency to increase, while the twelve-month growth appears to have stabilized after a sharp decline, according to Statistics Norway.
They point out that this may indicate that the non-financial enterprises have already stabilized their debt intake and may have somewhat higher demand for credit in the periods ahead.
– High key interest rates have resulted in continuously decreasing debt growth for households. For the non-financial enterprises, expectations that interest rates will fall in the long term have meant that they have already increased their debt intake somewhat in recent months, says SSB senior adviser Jimmy Wong.
(© NTB)
