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Business sector debt increased in the third quarter of 2016 by about NIS 10.5 billion (1.3 percent), to about NIS 841 billion. Household debt increased in the third quarter by about NIS 11 billion (2.2 percent), to around NIS 501 billion.[1]
 
The business sector’s outstanding debt
·     In the third quarter of 2016, business sector debt increased by about NIS 10.5 billion (1.3 percent) to around NIS 841 billion. The increase derived mainly from a quantitative increase in nonbank debt to about NIS 14.8 billion, and was comprised mainly of net issues of tradable bonds in Israel.  These bonds were issued mainly in September, when there were significant issuances due in part to issuances being brought forward from October when there were few trading days due to the holidays. The increase in the balance of debt was partly offset by a quantitative reduction in bank loans, and as a result of the 2.3 percent appreciation of the shekel against the dollar, which reduced the value of debt denominated in and indexed to foreign exchange.
·     In the third quarter, the business sector (excluding banks and insurance companies) issued about NIS 19 billion in bonds, significantly more than issuances in the previous quarter (about NIS 10 billion).  Most of the issuances were held in September. In October, due to the low number of trading days, the business sector issued only about NIS 0.5 billion in bonds.
·     The spread between yields on CPI-indexed corporate bonds, as measured by the Tel Bond 60 index, and the yield on CPI-indexed government bonds widened by an average of about 0.1 percentage points in the past two months, to about 1.36 percentage points in October, following a decline of about 0.31 percentage points between March and August, 2016.
 
Household debt

·     Households’ outstanding debt increased by about NIS 11 billion (2.2 percent) in the third quarter of 2016, to about NIS 501 billion. Since the beginning of the year, outstanding household debt increased by about NIS 27 billion (5.6 percent), of which about NIS 16 billion (4.9 percent) is housing debt and about NIS 11 billion (7.2 percent) is non-housing debt.

·     Outstanding housing debt increased in the third quarter by about NIS 6 billion (1.8 percent), to about NIS 337 billion.
·     In the third quarter of the year, new mortgages taken out totaled about NIS 16 billion, similar to the same period last year.  In October 2016, new mortgages taken out totaled about NIS 2.8 billion, a mostly seasonal decline compared with the previous month, due to the low number of business days in the month.  Excluding seasonal effects, the estimate of new mortgages taken out in October totals about NIS 4.1 billion (Figure 4).

For links to Data and Statistics on the Bank of Israel website:
 
 
 
 
[1] The following retroactive revisions were made in November 2016: Credit to public and private nonprofit organizations from the business sector was deducted (a decline of about NIS 2.3 billion in the business sector’s debt) and moved to the government and household sectors, respectively.  This is in line with international definitions; The estimate of institutional holdings of business sector bonds was improved through itemized data.  This improvement does not affect total business sector debt, but does have an effect on the segmentation of business sector bonds held by institutional investors and households (calculated as a remainder).  This improvement is reflected in the long-term tables by lenders and instruments published on the Bank of Israel’s website.