The Financial Post reports in its Thursday edition that Canadians are spending more of their disposable income to pay down debt than ever recorded, as mortgage interest payments have nearly doubled since the Bank of Canada began hiking interest rates in early 2022. A Bloomberg dispatch to the Post says that household debt service ratio, which tracks the total payments -- principal and interest -- that Canadians are required to make as a proportion of their disposable income, reached 15.22 per cent in the third quarter, the highest since data started being collected in 1990. Statistics Canada released the figure in national balance sheet data on Wednesday. The report provides insight into the financial health of Canadians, who are the most indebted in the Group of Seven. Household wealth also slumped in Q3, as higher debt costs were accompanied by weaker financial and housing markets. Household net worth (the value of all assets minus all liabilities) shrank 1.8 per cent to $16.2-trillion, the statistics agency said. Still, the agency said the quarterly increase in household debt marked the slowest year-over-year expansion since 1990, suggesting Canadians are putting the brakes on borrowing amid high borrowing costs.