Debt Developments in the Nonfinancial Private Sector, First Quarter of 2016
Business sector debt declined in the first quarter of 2016 by about NIS 1.3 billion (0.2 percent), to about NIS 814 billion. Household debt increased in the first quarter by about NIS 5.6 billion (1.2 percent), to around NIS 480 billion. [1]
The business sector’s outstanding debt
· In the first quarter of 2016, business sector debt declined by about NIS 1.3 billion to around NIS 814 billion. The decline derived from an appreciation of the shekel vis-à-vis the dollar by about 3.5 percent, and the decline in the Consumer Price Index by about 0.9 percent, factors which lowered the value of debt denominated in and indexed to foreign exchange and of CPI-indexed debt. In contrast, there was a quantitative increase of about NIS 7.5 billion in business sector debt, mainly due to bank loans, which was partly offset by a quantitative reduction in bond debt in Israel and in loans from abroad.
· In the first quarter of the year, for the first time, there was a negative annual change (change compared with the first quarter of the previous year) in nonbank debt (-1.8 percent), with stability in the positive change in bank debt (3.2 percent).
· In April 2016 the business sector (excluding banks and insurance companies) issued about NIS 5.1 billion in bonds, all in tradable bonds, higher than the average in the first quarter of the year (about NIS 2.3 billion).
The spread between yields on CPI-indexed corporate bonds, as measured by the Tel Bond 60 index, and the yield on CPI-indexed government bonds declined by an average of about 0.19 percentage points in February–April, to about 1.51 percentage points.
Household debt
· Households’ outstanding debt increased by about NIS 5.6 billion (1.2 percent) in the first quarter of 2016, to about NIS 480 billion. Of that, the balance of outstanding housing debt increased by about NIS 2.9 billion, to about NIS 324 billion.
· In April 2016, there was a seasonal decline in new mortgages taken out, with new mortgages totaling about NIS 4.7 billion, slightly lower than the average for the first quarter, which is about NIS 5 billion (see Figure 3).
For links to Data and Statistics on the Bank of Israel website:
[1] For details about the methodological changes and improvements made to the debt data during the first quarter of 2016, see the debt tables on the Bank of Israel website—Statistics > Financial Activity > Credit Market > External and Internal Debt of the Economy > Debt and Credit