Position of Icelandic households after the banking collapse

The Central Bank of Iceland recently held a symposium on the position of Icelandic households in the wake of the banking collapse, with Economics Department experts Karen Á. Vignisdóttir and Thorvardur Tjörvi Ólafsson as lead speakers. This was the third in a series of symposia featuring Central Bank authors presenting the Bank's research and analysis.

In the symposium on household status, the authors addressed the following questions:

• What percentage of households has a heavy debt service burden as a proportion of income, has a negative equity position, or has lost substantial income due to unemployment?
• How is the debt service burden for mortgage loans, motor vehicle loans, and overdraft loans distributed across income groups?
• What percentage of total debt is borne by households with a manageable debt service burden?
• Is the income distribution among households with foreign-denominated loans different from that among households with króna-denominated loans?
• How has income changed year-on-year?
• What percentage of households owe more on mortgages, motor vehicle loans, and overdraft loans than they own in housing equity and financial wealth?

The findings were presented in a lecture supplemented by the following PowerPoint document:

The Situation of Icelandic Households Following the banks collapse.pdf