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Canadians aren't the savings-averse debt-aholics that some statistics might have you believe. Actually, we're doing okay – and thanks to economic cycles and demographics, we may be headed for even better.

Those assertions may be tough to swallow when you look at Equifax Canada's quarterly report on Canadian consumer debt trends, published Monday. The consumer credit-rating agency points out that the country's total consumer debt at the end of the second quarter was up 6.1 per cent, or nearly $77-billion, from a year earlier. This, despite considerable policy efforts from Ottawa to try to reverse the tide of consumer borrowing, especially on the mortgage front.

But if we look beyond the depressing headline of absolute debt levels, we see plenty of light at the end of the tunnel.

A new report from Toronto-Dominion Bank's economics department argues (with an array of other supporting data) that Canadians have, in fact, "become more frugal." Indeed, the report says, growth in consumer debt excluding home mortgages (which, one could argue, is quite unlike typical debt-financed consumption) "is trending at its slowest pace in almost 20 years."

Consider how the personal savings rate is typically calculated: The difference between after-tax personal income and total spending. You can, therefore, get an improvement in savings without actually spending less; a rise in after-tax income would do the same trick. But the report noted that Canadian income growth has actually been slowing over the past couple of years. Spending has slowed even more.

Another way of looking at savings rates – one that some economists prefer – is to compare household net worth with disposable income. A net-worth measure seems reasonable, as the value of a household's assets is a major determinant of the size of nest egg the household has accumulated; it's a meaningful yardstick for total savings. Here, too, the savings rate shows a sharp improvement from its Great Recession lows, and is running above its long-term historical average.

What's remarkable about this is that the value for key assets in Canadian households hasn't been so healthy. The Teranet-National Bank of Canada House Price Index is up a thin 1.8 per cent in the past 12 months. The S&P/TSX composite index is essentially where it was two years ago. That means that the improvement in household balance sheets over the past couple of years hasn't been driven by a soaring value of assets, but rather by actual saving of money. "Actively saving out of income has had to take up the slack," report author Leslie Preston writes.

This raises the prospect that the savings rate could improve even more over the next couple of years, as the economic cycle accelerates – accompanied, eventually, by higher asset values and faster income growth.

Demographics may already be a key driver behind all of this – and that's unlikely to change over the coming decade. Canadians don't have much choice.

"The largest bulge in Canada's population pyramid (toward the tail end of the baby-boom cohort) is currently in their early 50s, at a stage in the life cycle where saving for retirement is becoming a far more salient reality," the report says.

David Parkinson is a contributor to ROB Insight, the business commentary service available to Globe Unlimited subscribers. Click here for more of his Insights, and follow him on Twitter at @parkinsonglobe.

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