The dominoes in the Australian economy are stacked in line and one can easily topple several others.
Key points:
- Australia has some of the highest household debt ratios in the world
- CEO of debt help service WayForward David Berry says a “looming monster” of debt has been growing during COVID-19
- A NAB spokeswoman says there is a limit to how long deferring mortgage repayments can work
Rental reductions and repayment extensions have helped the Australian economy to keep functioning during COVID-19 and have kept our debts at bay.
But soon, many of these measures will begin to end and even with the promise of more relief on the way, some of the dominoes of debt could start to topple in the coming months.
To understand how debt is affecting us all during COVID-19, Background Briefing followed one chain of dominoes, from a single tenant to his landlord up to her commercial landlord and then all the way up to the Reserve Bank of Australia and the Federal Government.