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Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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7<br />

Total Household borrowing, mainly for Housing (1978-<br />

2000)<br />

70<br />

60<br />

Total Household borrowing<br />

Year 2000 Dollars<br />

50<br />

40<br />

30<br />

NZ $ Billions<br />

20<br />

10<br />

0<br />

1978 1980 1982 1984 1986 1988 1990 1992 1994 1996 1998 2000<br />

Source: Bun Ung, Reserve Bank of New Zealand, via email to the author 18 March 2002.<br />

Student Debt<br />

Student loans were introduced in New Zealand in 1991. A decade later, in April 2001, the<br />

total student debt had risen to more than NZ$4 billion and by March 2003 had passed the<br />

NZ$6 billion mark. The Ministry of Education reported in November 1999 that about 50<br />

per cent of all students have a loan, and that the average student debt was NZ$11,700 –<br />

almost double the 1994 figure. By June 2001 the biggest single loan was NZ$167,000. 20<br />

In May 1999, the New Zealand University Students’ Association issued a casebook<br />

report on its interviews with recent teacher and lawyer graduates. Comments from<br />

interviewees included that having a loan was ‘a terrible worry’, that ‘it was like having a<br />

mortgage and no house to show for it’ and ‘if two educated people marry – with a<br />

combined debt of NZ$40,000–80,000 – how can they afford to buy a house/car?’ 21

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