A report issued by Statistics Canada stated that the debt-to-income ratio for Canadian households declined in the third quarter, which is a sign that Canadians are generating more disposable income than the credit debts they owe.

The agency said today, Wednesday, that the figure decreased to 179.5 percent in the third quarter from 179.9 percent in the second quarter.

At the same time, the household debt service ratio — which measures the total amount of debt payments (including interest) against disposable income — rose, indicating that debt repayment grew faster than income.

The report also highlighted several trends related to mortgage payments.

Since the Bank of Canada began a series of interest rate hikes in 2022, the cost of total mortgage installments has increased by 89.6 percent.

However, with the decreased amount of payments made by Canadians on their mortgage loans, principal payments dropped by 16.8 percent.