A record number of households are having serious difficulty keeping up with debt repayments, according to the Daily Telegraph.

And no wonder – between us, the paper says, we owe more money than the UK’s entire economy generates in a year.

Add together outstanding mortgages, loan, credit card and higher purchase balances plus other forms of debt and it comes to a whopping £1,345 billion.

Meanwhile, our annual economic output stands at just £1,330 billion.

Apparently, we owe more per head in relation to our income than the Americans, Japanese or Germans.

So it’s no surprise to learn that around 2.5 million people describe themselves as “very concerned” about their ability to manage their debts.

Frankly, I’m amazed that figure isn’t a lot higher.

But there may be a chink of light amid all this gloom.

Mortgage company mform.co.uk says the rates at which mortgage lenders borrow in the money markets to support their fixed-rate deals fell last week, and it thinks this could be the beginning of a new downward trend.

The Nationwide and West Bromwich building societies have now reduced their rates on some fixed-interest deals.

Fingers crossed the desire not to be left looking uncompetitive will encourage other lenders to follow their example.