The credit crunch has hit UK household balance sheets hard. Between June 2007 and September 2008, net financial assets of households have fallen about 15 percent. Of course, dates are important here. This chart doesn't include the last six months, when households balance sheets took a further hit due to declining equity prices.Furthermore, the chart above does not include non-financial assets such as houses. Property prices are down around 20 percent since autumn 2007. It does, however, include, household loans secured on property.
The recent decline in net financial assets remains quite modest compared to the dot.com crash. Between December 1999 and March 2003, households saw their financial net worth fall by 30 percent. During this same period, house prices were buoyant, and thus limited the overall extent of declining household wealth.
No such luck this time; all asset classes are now tanking; giving no relief as household wealth takes a battering.
Househould wealth will fall for at least a decade. What a bubble gives, the crash takes.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/article5908388.ece
ReplyDeleteMy Sunday Times reckons its an even more whopping 17pct.
Most people are still in denial. I was out with the father-in-law: he still thinks things are mostly fine and the economy will pick up again in six months. He is so deluded.
ReplyDeleteBleakhouse,
ReplyDeleteI will take a look at the times article. My number comes from the ONS. It excludes property, and just covers financial assets.
Alice