Part of our Official International Reserves—around $ billion—are held at the IMF. Canada, like a number of other advanced economies, also makes a portion of its reserves available for IMF programs. Taking all these potential needs into consideration, Canada’s level of liquid international reserves is set at a minimum of 3 per cent of nominal GDP—a floor which it generally significantly exceeds.
This may reflect the fact that Australian households are more active in paying down their loans after buying a home, possibly because owner-occupied mortgage interest rates are not tax deductible here as they are in the United States. The faster pay-down of mortgage debt in Australia reduces the risk of borrowers subsequently getting into financial difficulty.