WELLINGTON, July 22 (Xinhua) -- Rising asset values resulted in a 5.5-percent increase in household net worth in the March 2021 quarter compared with December 2020, New Zealand's statistics department Stats NZ said on Thursday.
"Rising asset prices, including property prices, have meant that the total net worth of New Zealand households has increased strongly in recent quarters," national accounts senior manager Paul Pascoe said in a statement.
Net worth is the value of all assets owned by households less the value of all their liabilities. At 31 March 2021, the net worth of New Zealand households was 2.3 trillion NZ dollars (1.6 trillion U.S dollars), 5.5 percent higher than in Dec. 31, 2020, statistics showed.
Household net worth increased 402 billion NZ dollars (279.5 billion U.S dollars) over the year from March 2020 to March 2021. This amount was almost the same as the growth over the previous years from June 2016 to March 2020, Stats NZ said.
While household loan debt has increased 16 billion NZ dollars (11 billion U.S dollars) from March 2020, the value of household assets has risen 417 billion NZ dollars (290 billion U.S dollars), it said.
The rising value of household owner-occupied property contributed 172 billion NZ dollars (120 billion U.S dollars) of the rise in household assets since March last year, Pascoe said.
Financial assets, which include shares, businesses, equity in rental properties, bank deposits, and retirement savings owned by households, contributed 245 billion NZ dollars (170 billion U.S dollars) to the increase in household assets since March last year, exceeding the rise from owner-occupied property, he said.
When combining rental properties with owner-occupied property, the increases in the values of residential property accounted for about 54 percent of the household asset increase for the March 2021 year, Pascoe said. Enditem