More Credit Card Debt Would Aid Economic Recovery

Published

June 17, 2011

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Recent economic improvements have seen consumers use their credit card accounts slightly more often in recent months, but many are still cautious about carrying too much debt from one month to the next, according to a report from USA Today. As a result, the economy’s recovery isn’t coming quite as quickly as it could be.

“What we’re seeing is a return of consumers to their credit cards but a very slow one,” Gregory Daco, an economist at IHS Global Insight, told the newspaper. “We would like to see it go up.”

IHS Global notes that the nation’s credit card balances have fallen $180 billion since August 2008, and the ratio of non-mortgage consumer debt to disposable income has dropped to 20.7 percent, the lowest rate in 15 years, the report said. However, the rate at which that decline is happening has slowed somewhat in recent months.

Financial troubles brought on by the national recession caused many consumers to default on their credit card accounts and take severe credit hits as a result.

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