Government is not the only one facing a mountain of debt. On Friday as the domestic debt exchange deadline expired, the Central Bank published information showing Barbadians racked up $347 million in credit card debt by the end of last year.
About 93 per cent of that large sum is owed by individuals and households, with 38 000 new credit cards issued between 2015 and 2017 alone. There were 91 000 credit cards in 2015 and 129 000 two years later.
Between 2000 and 2017 “credit card debt grew at a faster rate than overall debt has − at an average of eight per cent each year, as compared to five per cent for all types of debt combined”.
The credit card information, which is captured in the 2017 Financial Stability Report, included data from commercial banks, Globe Finance and Cave Shepherd, and covered the VISA and Mastercard platforms. (SC)
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