Economists at the Federal Reserve System of New York showed in a new report released Tuesday that payments made by Americans using credit cards reached an all-time high in the third quarter of this year, Markets Insider reports.

From July to September, balances on credit cards used by Americans grew by $48 billion, or about 4.7%, and the total debt accumulated with them reached at least $1.08 trillion, the data show.

This increase marks the 8th consecutive quarter of growth in credit card debt among US residents amid historic inflation that emerged in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and was exacerbated by the outbreak of the war in Ukraine.

Although inflation began to decline in the US in the second half of last year, American savings rates fell during the pandemic, as legendary investor Michael Berry revealed last summer, even though the financial meltdown he predicted did not materialize.

In particular, US personal savings fell from spring 2021 to summer 2022 from 25% to 3.8% of US GDP.

Americans’ credit card debt has reached record levels

Economists at the New York Fed say the new increase in Americans’ credit card debt in the third quarter is, in nominal terms, the largest annual increase since data began being collected in 1999.

Household debt increased by $228 billion over the same period, another major component of which was student loans in the US.

Americans’ credit card debt topped $1 trillion for the first time this summer.

But given that the U.S. economy beat expectations with strong growth in the third quarter, Fed economists note that the increase in American indebtedness “is consistent with high nominal spending and real GDP growth over the same time period.”

But they warn that more and more Americans are falling behind on their loan payments.