The Economics and Statistics Division maintains archives of previous publications for accountability purposes, but makes no updates to keep these documents current with the latest data revisions from Statistics Canada. As a result, information in older documents may not be accurate. Please exercise caution when referring to older documents. For the latest information and historical data, please contact the individual listed to the right.
<--- Return to Archive
For additional information relating to this article, please contact:
March 14, 2019NATIONAL BALANCE SHEET ACCOUNTS, Q4 2018 
In the last quarter of 2018, Canadian national wealth fell 2.2 per cent (or $244.2 billion) to $11,081 billion. This was the first decline after 5 consecutive quarters of rising non-financial asset values. The decline in Q4 is largely attributable to lower natural resource asset values (reflecting recent declines in the price of crude oil) as well as lower residential real estate asset values (lower housing prices). Canada's net foreign asset position decreased by $109.1 billion to $528.6 billion in Q4 because of weaker equity prices.
Total assets, including financial and non-financial assets fell by 1.6 per cent to $41.9 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter 2018.
Household sector
In 2018 Q4, Canada’s household sector net worth at market value fell 2.8 per cent to $10.7 trillion. Financial asset values were down 3.2 per cent (-7.5 per cent for equities). Non-financial asset values were also down 1.0 per cent on lower real estate prices.
Household borrowing edged up to $21.2 billion in Q4 on rising mortgage loans. Consumer credit and non-mortgage lending were down.
Household credit market debt as a proportion of household disposable income increased to 178.49 per cent in the fourth quarter.
Household debt payments amounted to 14.9 per cent of disposable income (before interest payments). This is reaching about the same highs as observed in the fourth quarter of 2007. However, there is a markedly different composition of debt service obligations for Canadian households as obligated principal payments have risen over the last 12 years while interest payments as a share of disposable income have fallen. Nevertheless, recent interest rate rises explain most of Canada's rising debt service ratios over the last year.
Government sector
At the end of the fourth quarter 2018, general government net debt (book value) edged up to 41.4 percent of GDP, rising back to the same level as observed in Q2. The federal government's net debt to GDP ratio continues to fall, dropping to 26.92 per cent. Net debt of other levels of government is now larger than Federal government debt at 27.58 per cent of GDP.
Corporate sector
The credit market debt to equity ratio of non-financial private corporations was 72.20 cents of credit market debt for every dollar of equity in the fourth quarter 2018, up from 71.33 cents in the previous quarter.
Note: Statistics Canada includes revisions to data for the first three quarters of 2018 as well as new seasonal trends. Additional revisions for selected data series reaching back to 1990 incorporate the inclusion of illegal economic activities for non-medical and medical use into the National Accounts.
Statistics Canada:
Table 11-10-0065-01 Debt service indicators of households, national balance sheet accounts
Table 36-10-0580-01 National Balance Sheet Accounts (x 1,000,000)
Table 38-10-0235-01 Financial indicators of households and non-profit institutions serving households, national balance sheet accounts
Table 38-10-0236-01 Financial indicators of corporate sector, national balance sheet accounts
Table 38-10-0237-01 Financial indicators of general government sector, national balance sheet accounts
Table 38-10-0238-01 Household sector credit market summary table, seasonally adjusted estimates
<--- Return to Archive
