OTTAWA - Bank of Canada governor Mark Carney says he is seeing encouraging developments on the household debt front.
The central banker tells a Commons finance committee that the pace of debt accumulation is slowing and that new home buyers appear to be opting in for longer term fixed mortgages.
He says household debt accumulation has fallen from about nine or 10 per cent annually to near four per cent.
And he says the bank's research indicates that new homebuyers are staying away from more volatile variable mortgages and locking in low rates, which makes them less vulnerable to interest rate hikes.
However, he repeated his warning that household debt -- currently at 151 per cent of disposable income -- is the number one domestic risk to the economic recovery.
