Could confidence predict households’ debt growth?

Abstract: This thesis analyses if households’ confidence could be a significant variable to predicthouseholds’ debt growth in Sweden. Households’ debts have an important role in thefinancial system where the vulnerability of households’ debts has increased over time.To test whether households’ confidence is a significant variable for the prediction ofhouseholds’ debt growth in Sweden, an econometric model with the households’ debtchange as the dependent variable and the changes in the repo rate, unemployment, grossdomestic product and consumer confidence index as independent variables was used.Consumer confidence index was used as a proxy variable for households’ confidence.It was lagged by one time period in order to quantify if consumer confidence indexcould, with previous value, predict the households’ debt growth. The result showed thatthe households’ confidence was not significant to predict the households’ debt growth.