U.S. nonfinancial business debt soared in the first quarter by the most since records were first kept in 1952, as bank loans and corporate bond issuance jumped in companies’ all-out effort to stay liquid during the coronavirus pandemic, Bloomberg News reported. Firms boosted debt by $754.8 billion, or at an 18.8 percent annualized rate, in the first quarter to a total outstanding $16.8 trillion that surpassed the level of household borrowing, according to a Federal Reserve report released yesterday. At the same time, household net worth fell the most on record — to $110.8 trillion from $117.3 trillion — as stock prices collapsed in February and March amid fears of the coronavirus. Federal government debt surged an annualized 14.3 percent. Corporate bond issuance jumped a record annualized $682.1 billion from the fourth quarter while loans soared $2.3 trillion, as companies tapped credit to withstand a collapse in global demand, the interruption of supply chains and widespread economic uncertainty. Loans from depository institutions surged an annualized $1.6 trillion.
