Despite a slowing in mortgage debt growth, household borrowing rose in April, driven by other sorts of credit, Statistics Canada reports.
Total household credit liabilities rose by 0.3% in April, an increase of $8.4 billion to $2.95 trillion.
While mortgage debt represented the bulk of the new borrowing ($5.2 billion worth), the segment grew by just 0.2%, which marked a slowdown from 0.3% growth in the previous month.
The growth in mortgage debt was outpaced by home equity lines of credit (HELOCs), which rose by 0.5% in April.
StatsCan noted that HELOC balances rose for the seventh straight month, and combined with mortgage borrowing pushed the total debt secured by real estate up by 0.3% in April.
Credit card debt grew faster than mortgages in April too, with balances rising by 0.4% in the month.
Overall, non-mortgage debt grew by 0.4% in April, and StatsCan said the growth in non-mortgage debt on an annualized basis accelerated in April, growing at a 5.3% rate in the month, up from 4.6% in March.
Alongside household borrowing, total credit liabilities of private non-financial corporations grew by 0.5% in April, rising by $9.8 billion to $2.1 trillion, StatsCan added.