National Australia Bank chief executive Ross McEwan has highlighted the hit from surging rents and high inflation on stressed households, as a new survey shows more people are missing bills and hardship levels have risen to a six-year high.

Launching the Salvation Army’s annual Red Shield Appeal on Friday, McEwan said that although parts of the economy were buoyant, high inflation, rising interest rates and soaring rents were squeezing vulnerable customers.

“We’ve got some sectors that are doing so well. You know, you got a mineral sector that’s going very well. The energy sector is going incredibly well. You’ve got the farming community, the agricultural sector,” McEwan said in Sydney.

“Yet underneath all of that, you’ve got interest rates going up – and they’re going up for a reason [to slow the economy and tame inflation] – but you’ve got inflation that we haven’t seen since the ’80s. And that is hurting the pocket of those who can ill afford it.”

With intense pressure on the rental market, McEwan also underlined the sharp increases in rents, which have risen by about 10 per cent, amid record low vacancy rates. He noted that in some cases, rents were increasing by hundreds of dollars a week, which was putting stress on budgets.

“If you imagine you’re paying $600, $700 it went to $1100, where’s the money come from?” he said.

McEwan, who visited a Salvation Army homeless facility this week, said it was a “disgrace” that there were 120,000 homeless people in a country as wealthy as Australia.

The NAB chief also reported that financial counsellors had seen a record increase in demand for help from people struggling financially.