US household wealth rises 5% in Q3

• Source: Xinhua
• [09:51 December 11 2009]
• Comments

US households' wealth rose 5 percent to 53.4 trillion dollars in the third quarter, the second consecutive quarterly increase, reported the Federal Reserve on Thursday.

According to the Fed's Flow of Funds report, US household net worth, the difference between the value of assets and liabilities, was up 2.7 trillion dollars in July-to-September period from the previous quarter.

The data showed that a robust stock market rebound and continued household debt deleveraging were the main factors that pushed up Americans' wealth.

The central bank said that household debt declined at a 2.5-percent annual rate from the second quarter. It was the fifth straight quarterly drop, reflecting steep declines in mortgage and consumer debt, such as credit cards.

However, Americans' net worth remains far below the peak of 65.3 trillion dollars reached before the recession began in December 2007.