Moody's reported on the 1st that the charge-offs and write-downs of credit card debts in February climbed to 8.82%, the highest since the inception of Moody's Credit Card Index 20 years ago, and the sixth consecutive month of increase. The level in February is over 300 basis points higher than a year ago. Moody's said that the unemployment rate has been rising sharply in recent months, resulting in a surge in bad debts for many major credit card issuers. "We expect this credit card charge-off index to rise into double digits before the end of the year as the economy is expected to continue deteriorating this year," Moody's stated.