Money

Black Friday: The Holiday Surge in U.S. Consumer Debt and Spending

Published

7 years ago

November 17, 2016

Jeff Desjardins

Black Friday: The Holiday Surge in U.S. Consumer Debt and Spending

Black Friday

Visualizing the surge in U.S. consumer debt and spending

The Chart of the Week is a weekly Visual Capitalist feature on Fridays.

Next week, Black Friday and Cyber Monday will kick off the start to the U.S. holiday shopping season, during which consumers are expected to spend a total of $655.8 billion this year.

With the average bill coming in at $938.50 for holiday spending, where are people finding the extra cash?

We looked back at the last five years of Equifax data to see how consumer debt correlates to holiday purchases.

There’s Credit In Store

One way consumers take advantage of Black Friday deals is through the issuance of store credit. Specifically, Black Friday traditionally sees a noteworthy surge in signups to private label cards – the kind redeemed at stores like Macy’s.

Each year, roughly half a million Americans are signing up for new accounts on Black Friday:

Private label cards issued	2012	2013	2014	2015
Prior 10 days (Avg.)	130,312	153,605	164,341	162,006
Black Friday	463,292	485,512	502,805	491,873
Following 10 days (Avg.)	167,144	181,454	182,320	181,903

Furniture and department stores are among the biggest providers of this type of credit to consumers. Here are the five-year averages by industry for the months of November and December:

New store credit issued (Nov/Dec)	$ millions
Furniture	851
Department stores	790
Jewelry	451
Electronics	365
Clothing	241

Charge it, please

This bump in activity doesn’t stop with new signups for store credit. The average balances on store cards and credit cards both jump noticeably in the months following the holiday season:

Month	Store Card Balance (5-Year Average)	Credit Card Balance (5-year Average)
August	$291	$1,717
September	$293	$1,720
October	$296	$1,709
November	$298	$1,707
December	$313	$1,742
January	$320	$1,756
February	$308	$1,710

Every year is different, but the data always follows the same trend.

Stocking up on Black Friday deals is not cheap, and extra dollars spent eventually make their way onto the credit card statement with the cost of interest added on.

Related Topics:debt spending credit cards black friday consumer debt cyber monday christmas holidays

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How Debt-to-GDP Ratios Have Changed Since 2000

See how much the debt-to-GDP ratios of advanced economies have grown (or shrank) since the year 2000.

Published

8 hours ago

April 18, 2024

Marcus Lu

How Debt-to-GDP Ratios Have Changed Since 2000

This was originally posted on our Voronoi app. Download the app for free on Apple or Android and discover incredible data-driven charts from a variety of trusted sources.

Government debt levels have grown in most parts of the world since the 2008 financial crisis, and even more so after the COVID-19 pandemic.

To gain perspective on this long-term trend, we’ve visualized the debt-to-GDP ratios of advanced economies, as of 2000 and 2024 (estimated). All figures were sourced from the IMF’s World Economic Outlook.

Data and Highlights

The data we used to create this graphic is listed in the table below. “Government gross debt” consists of all liabilities that require payment(s) of interest and/or principal in the future.

Country	2000 (%)	2024 (%)	Change (pp)
🇯🇵 Japan	135.6	251.9	+116.3
🇸🇬 Singapore	82.3	168.3	+86.0
🇺🇸 United States	55.6	126.9	+71.3
🇬🇧 United Kingdom	36.6	105.9	+69.3
🇬🇷 Greece	104.9	160.2	+55.3
🇫🇷 France	58.9	110.5	+51.6
🇵🇹 Portugal	54.2	104.0	+49.8
🇪🇸 Spain	57.8	104.7	+46.9
🇸🇮 Slovenia	25.9	66.5	+40.6
🇫🇮 Finland	42.4	76.5	+34.1
🇭🇷 Croatia	35.4	61.8	+26.4
🇨🇦 Canada	80.4	103.3	+22.9
🇨🇾 Cyprus	56.0	70.9	+14.9
🇦🇹 Austria	65.7	74.0	+8.3
🇸🇰 Slovak Republic	50.5	56.5	+6.0
🇩🇪 Germany	59.3	64.0	+4.7
🇧🇪 Belgium	109.6	106.8	-2.8
🇮🇱 Israel	77.4	56.8	-20.6
🇮🇸 Iceland	75.8	54.6	-21.2

The debt-to-GDP ratio indicates how much a country owes compared to the size of its economy, reflecting its ability to manage and repay debts. Percentage point (pp) changes shown above indicate the increase or decrease of these ratios.

Countries with the Biggest Increases

Japan (+116 pp), Singapore (+86 pp), and the U.S. (+71 pp) have grown their debt as a percentage of GDP the most since the year 2000.

All three of these countries have stable, well-developed economies, so it’s unlikely that any of them will default on their growing debts. With that said, higher government debt leads to increased interest payments, which in turn can diminish available funds for future government budgets.

This is a rising issue in the U.S., where annual interest payments on the national debt have surpassed $1 trillion for the first time ever.

Only 3 Countries Saw Declines

Among this list of advanced economies, Belgium (-2.8 pp), Iceland (-21.2 pp), and Israel (-20.6 pp) were the only countries that decreased their debt-to-GDP ratio since the year 2000.

According to Fitch Ratings, Iceland’s debt ratio has decreased due to strong GDP growth and the use of its cash deposits to pay down upcoming maturities.