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Healthy Money Healthy Planet - library.uniteddiversity.coop

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17<br />

In New Zealand, our pace of borrowing has been very fast since the 1980s. The<br />

graph below, taken from a 2000 report by Clive Thorp and Bun Ung, demonstrates the<br />

ratio of total household financial liabilities to personal disposable income over the past<br />

two decades. This ratio increased from less than 50 per cent in 1978 to around 110 per cent<br />

in 1998. What this means is that although our household assets rose in value during this<br />

period, our growing debt has actually caused the net financial assets of our households to<br />

decline since 1985.<br />

41<br />

Thorp and Ung’s report also showed that similar trends are apparent in the UK and<br />

Australia.<br />

Household liabilities as percentage of disposable income<br />

140%<br />

120%<br />

100%<br />

80%<br />

60%<br />

40%<br />

20%<br />

0%<br />

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

Source: Clive Thorp and Bun Ung, ‘Trends in Household Assets and Liabilities Since<br />

1978’, Reserve Bank of New Zealand Bulletin, 63(2), 2000, p21.

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