What the data are
Statistics Canada’s national balance sheet accounts record the value of what each sector of the economy owns (its assets) and owes (its liabilities) at the end of every quarter. The difference is the sector’s net worth. Assets are either non-financial (land, housing, buildings, machinery and equipment, inventories and other produced or natural resources) or financial (deposits, loans, bonds, shares, pension entitlements and other claims on someone else). Every financial asset is someone else’s liability, so when all sectors are added together, including non-residents, financial assets and liabilities cancel out and national net worth equals the value of non-financial assets plus Canada’s net claims on the rest of the world. All values are at market value, and the data run from to .
Sectors
- Households exclude non-profit institutions serving households. Their liabilities are mostly mortgages and consumer credit, which are shown separately.
- Corporations are non-financial and financial corporations together. Financial corporations include the Bank of Canada (Statistics Canada’s “monetary authorities”), banks, insurers, pension funds and other financial institutions. Corporate liabilities include the shares they have issued, at market value, which is why corporate net worth is often negative.
- All governments (general governments) are the federal, provincial and territorial, and local governments plus the Canada and Quebec Pension Plans, so the three levels shown separately do not add up to the total. Government business enterprises, such as utilities and Crown lenders, are counted with corporations.
- Non-residents show Canada’s position with the rest of the world from the other side: their financial assets are claims on Canadians, and their net financial assets are the negative of Canada’s net international investment position.
- The national balance sheet adds up all resident sectors. The consolidated national balance sheet nets out claims that Canadian sectors hold on each other, leaving non-financial assets and net claims on non-residents; in it, a negative “financial liabilities” value is a net claim on the rest of the world.
Who holds government debt
These data show the market value of government bonds and short-term paper (mostly treasury bills) held by each sector: Government of Canada bonds and short-term paper, provincial and territorial government bonds, and local government bonds. Sums such as “all Government of Canada securities” are calculated here. The per cent of holdings measure is each holder’s share of the total held by all sectors. Some debt, such as provincial short-term paper and government loans, is not covered, so the totals are smaller than total government debt. Holdings by the issuing government itself (for example, federal holdings of Government of Canada bonds) appear as published.
In the composition view, Groups combines some holders: . The other groups are single holders.
Debt ratios
The debt and leverage ratios are published by Statistics Canada for households, private non-financial corporations and general governments, in per cent. Household debt service ratios are seasonally adjusted; they measure required principal and interest payments (or interest alone) as a share of disposable income. Effective interest rates are total interest paid relative to debt outstanding, at quarterly rates as published (multiply by about four for an annual rate). For governments, the federal and “other levels” ratios are shown as published and need not add up to the general government ratio.
Measures
- Dollars: nominal values, shown in millions (M), billions (B) or trillions (T).
- dollars: deflated by the all-items consumer price index, with as the base.
- Per person: divided by Canada’s population in the quarter.
- Per cent of GDP: divided by nominal gross domestic product at annual rates (seasonally adjusted), so a stock is compared with a year’s output.
- Per cent of holdings: for government debt, the share of the total held by all sectors.
The snapshot compares every sector, holder or indicator in one quarter, with markers for a comparison quarter. The composition view breaks a balance sheet into non-financial assets, financial assets and liabilities, or a type of government debt into its holders. In tables, year-end shows the fourth quarter of each year and the latest quarter available.
Sources
Statistics Canada tables 36-10-0580 (national balance sheet accounts, including holdings of government bonds and short-term paper), 38-10-0235, 38-10-0236 and 38-10-0237 (financial indicators for households, private non-financial corporations and general governments) and 11-10-0065 (household debt service ratios). Population is from table 17-10-0009, GDP from table 36-10-0104 and the consumer price index from table 18-10-0004. Statistics Canada revises these data often, especially the most recent quarters.
How to cite
Questions or comments? Please email Trevor Tombe (University of Calgary) at .
Licence
This tool and its data are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International licence (CC BY 4.0). You may share and adapt them for any purpose, including commercially, as long as you give appropriate credit (see How to cite), link to the licence and say if you made changes. The underlying Statistics Canada data remain under the Statistics Canada Open Licence.