The Financial Post reports in its Friday edition that the effects of higher interest rates in 2024 may have worsened the income gap between the top 40 per cent and the bottom 40 per cent of households in the second quarter of the year, according to Statistics Canada's latest household numbers. The Post's Serah Louis writes that the share of disposable income between households in the top 40 per cent and the bottom 40 per cent of the income distribution surged to 47 percentage points, the largest gap ever recorded since Statscan started collecting data in 1999. TD Bank economist Maria Solovieva pointed to a recent report from the Office of the Parliamentary Budget Officer, which highlighted how rising inflation and tighter monetary policy has eroded purchasing power, particularly among lower-income households, since 2022. The report found that households in the highest income quintile have seen their income before taxes rise 32 per cent. They are "the only income group whose higher investment income contributes the most to private income growth, after wage gains," it said. Higher-income households benefit from higher interest rates boosting their financial assets, with higher yields on their savings and investments.