It might be extremely dry in some parts of the U.S. this summer but when it comes to revolving debt it is anything but a drought. American consumers piled on another $5 billion to revolving debt during June according to figures released last week by the Federal Reserve. Overall consumer credit throttled down a bit to a 2.5% annual growth rate from 10.5% in May. Since last June, American consumers have added more than $31 billion to revolving debt, according to the FRB. Revolving credit is mostly credit card debt. Total bank credit card debt stands at $460 billion while store/retail credit card debt stands at $93 billion according to CardData (www.carddata.com). Therefore the FRB's $576 billion in revolving debt for June includes $553 billion in credit card debt and $23 billion in revolving lines of credit attached to checking accounts. At the end of June, American consumers were $1.347 trillion in debt, exclusive of home mortgages.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL
Jun99
May99
Apr99
Mar99
Feb99
Jan99
Dec98
Nov98
Oct98
Sep98
GROWTH
8.6
4.2
5.6
0.9
3.4
11.6
8.6
2.4
13.0
7.5
$OWED
$576.0
571.9
569.9
567.3
567.5
565.9
560.5
556.5
557.6
551.7
Source Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 08/06/99;
For complete historical data visit www.carddata.com.
