GlobalIndividuals are feeling confident enough to make continued use of their available credit lines. Consumer credit outstanding rose by $13.6 billion in August, continuing firm at 5.9% y/y. The gain followed an unrevised $10.4 billion July rise although earlier figures were revised higher. Expectations had been for an $11.8 billion increase according to the Action Economics survey.
Usage of non-revolving credit jumped another $14.5
billion (8.2% y/y) in August. Federal government loans increased 20.4%
y/y, these constitute about 32% of total non-revolving credit. Finance
company lending (28% of the total) edged up 0.4% y/y and commercial bank
consumer loans (24% of the total) gained 5.9% y/y. Borrowing at credit
unions (10% of the total) advanced 10.0% y/y and borrowing from savings
institutions increased 2.9% y/y (1% of the total).
Revolving credit outstanding slipped $0.9 billion (+0.3% y/y) in August.
Commercial bank lending (73% of the total) rose 0.2% y/y while savings
institution lending (8% of the total) gained 7.4% y/y. Finance
company accounts (8% of the total) fell 3.9% y/y while borrowing from
credit unions (5% of the total) gained 7.7% y/y. Nonfinancial business
accounts (3% of the total) continued to fall 19.5% y/y and securitized
credit card balances (4% of the total) increased 5.9%. These Federal Reserve Board figures are break-adjusted and calculated
by Haver Analytics. There is a break in the credit outstanding data from
November 2010 to December 2010 due to the Fed's benchmarking process.
Benchmark estimates are based on the Census of Finance Companies (CFC) and
the Survey of Finance Companies (SFC) conducted in 2010 and 2011,
respectively. The consumer credit data are available in Haver's USECON
database. The Action Economics figures are contained in the AS1REPNA
database.
Consumer Credit
Outstanding (M/M Chg, SA)
Aug
Jul
Jun
Y/Y
2012
2011
2010
Total
$13.6B
$10.4B
$14.3B
5.9%
6.1%
4.1%
-1.0%
Revolving
-0.9
-1.8
-3.7
0.3
0.4
0.2
-7.5
Non-revolving
14.5
12.2
18.1
8.2
8.6
5.9
2.7
