OTTAWA, March 16 (UPI) -- Canadian household net worth declined 4.4 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008 to $252 billion, the Statistics Canada agency reported from Ottawa Monday.
That equates to a $14,000 per capita decline from $179,300 to $165,300, the report said.
"In comparison, household assets in the United States have been decreasing since the fourth quarter of 2007, with total assets declining by 7.6 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008," StatsCan said.
Household credit debt of the household sector grew 1.7 percent and reached $1.3 trillion at the end of the fourth quarter of 2008, as households had 24.5 cents of debt for every dollar of net worth, the report said.
Overall national wealth grew less than 1 percent to just less than $6.1 trillion, a slowdown from the third quarter growth of 2.5 percent.
"The federal government's credit market debt rose by 14 percent in the fourth quarter of 2008," the agency said. "The increase was led by a record quarterly issuance of treasury bills, which increased the supply of liquid assets to Canadian financial markets."
