US household debt climbed at the fastest annual pace since 2008 in the third quarter, with credit-card balances surging, according to data released by the New York Fed on Tuesday.
Also bolstering consumers is a tight labor market, marked by robust job creation, low unemployment and rising wages. Fed Chair Jerome Powell said earlier this month that supply and demand for jobs remains out of balance and that conditions haven’t softened yet in an “obvious” way.
The Fed’s tightening so far -- nearly four percentage points in the last eight months -- has mainly had an impact on smaller sectors of the economy. Separate data Wednesday showed homebuilder sentiment fell again amid a steep climb in mortgage rates, and factory output barely rose in October.
