Households' mortgage debt totaled NIS 272 billion at the end of August 2012, after increasing by 1.2% during the month, and increasing by 5.4%, or NIS 13.8 million from the beginning of the year, the Bank of Israel reported today. Total household debt was NIS 381 billion at the end of August, after increasing by 0.8% during the month, and by 4.6%, or NIS 16.6 billion from the beginning of the year. 71.3% of household debt is mortgage debt.
NIS 3.2 billion in new mortgages were granted during September, less than the month average of NIS 3.8 billion in 2012, due to Jewish holiday season, which reduced the number of working days, and because transactions were brought forward to July and August to avoid the VAT hike that came into effect on September 1. The amount of new mortgages in September was 7% higher than in September 2011.
Business sector debt fell by NIS 200 million during August to NIS 793 billion. The Bank of Israel attributed the drop to NIS 3.2 billion in net repayments on debt, which was partly offset by the rise in the CPI and the depreciation of the shekel against the dollar during the month.
In September, the business sector (excluding banks and insurance companies) issued NIS 2.6 billion of bonds, including NIS 1.5 billion is an issue of tradable bonds by Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) (TASE: ELEC.B22). Bond issues in January-September averaged NIS 2.3 billion a month.
Published by Globes [online], Israel business news - www.globes-online.com - on October 24, 2012
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