Recent Updates
- US: Advance Retail Sales (Jul)
- US: CEO Confidence Survey (Q3)
- China Regional: IP Value Added, Investment in Fixed Assets (Jul)
- Azerbaijan: Retail Trade Turnover (Jul)
- Bulgaria: Foreign Trade in Goods (Jun)
- more updates...
Economy in Brief
U.S. Housing Starts Drop to 1.446 Mil. in July
Toal housing starts fell 9.6% m/m (-8.1% y/y) to a lower-than-expected 1.446 million...
U.S. Gasoline Prices Decline While the Cost of Crude Oil Rises
Retail gasoline prices fell to $3.94 per gallon (+24.1% y/y) last week...
ZEW Experts Still See Depressed Conditions and Harbor Weak Expectations
the current situation in the eyes of the ZEW experts strengthened in August in the U.S. and the U.K. but...
U.S. Home Builder Index Extends Downward Trend
The NAHB-Wells Fargo Composite Housing Market Index declined 10.9% during August (-34.7% y/y) to 49...
U.S. Empire State Manufacturing Index Plummets in August; Lowest Since May '20
The Empire State Manufacturing Index of General Business Conditions plunged to -31.3 in August...
Viewpoints
Commentaries are the opinions of the author and do not reflect the views of Haver Analytics.
by Tom Moeller June 7, 2021
• Nonrevolving credit usage continues strong.
• Revolving credit balances decline.
Consumer credit outstanding grew $18.6 billon during April, the same as in March, revised from $25.8 billion. February's increase was revised to $18.2 billion from $26.1 billion. A $20.0 billion April rise had been expected in the Action Economics Forecast Survey. The ratio of consumer credit outstanding-to-disposable personal income rose m/m to 22.5% compared to 23.9% during all of last year and 25.7% during 2019.
Nonrevolving credit usage increased $20.6 billion, the strongest rise since June of last year. Federal government borrowing, which issues over 40% of nonrevolving credit, grew an increased 4.4% y/y. Depository institution loans (25% of credit) grew a strengthened 4.7% y/y, up from 2.7% last year. Finance company borrowing (17.0% of loans) rose an accelerated 8.9% y/y, up from 1.0% growth in 2019, and credit union loans (15.0% of the total) increased a steady 2.8% y/y.
Revolving consumer credit balances declined $2.0 billion after a $1.4 billion March rise. Balances had been falling throughout 2020. Credit provided by depository institutions (90% of the total and mostly credit card debt), dropped 5.6% y/y. Credit union borrowing fell 7.0% y/y and the value of finance company loans weakened 16.8% y/y.
These Federal Reserve Board figures are break-adjusted and calculated by Haver Analytics. The breaks in the series in 2005, 2010 and 2015 are the result of the incorporation of the Census and Survey of Finance Companies, as well as changes in the seasonal adjustment methodology. The consumer credit data are available in Haver's USECON database. The Action Economics figures are contained in the AS1REPNA database.
Consumer Credit Outstanding (M/M Chg, SA) | Apr | Mar | Feb | Apr y/y | 2020 | 2019 | 2018 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Total ($ bil) | 18.6 | 18.6 | 18.2 | 2.3% | -0.2% | 4.6% | 4.5% |
Nonrevolving | 20.6 | 17.2 | 15.1 | 4.9 | 3.6 | 5.0 | 4.8 |
Revolving | -2.0 | 1.4 | 3.1 | -5.5 | -11.1 | 3.6 | 3.7 |