New Zealand this morning lost its AAA rating for local currency debt making it the first Asia-Pacific nation to do so.
There are now only 14 nations with a AAA rating from all three credit rating agencies and New Zealand now ranks below Spain and Australia but is on the same ranking as Japan.
New Zealanders and Australians much like the Americans, it appears, are living on credit to survive by meeting essential cost such as utilities and debt repayment.
Comparing the data from Visa and MasterCard with the expansion of credit card spending and private sector credit it seems that many can no longer meet their financial commitments?
From the Bloomberg article;
"The country’s 150 percent household indebtedness relative to disposable income compares with 157 percent in Australia, 159 percent in the UK and 116 percent in the US"
