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American use of consumer credit continues to gather steam as data for August shows a remarkable increase in the rate of growth compared to one year ago. During August of this year, consumers added nearly $4 billion to revolving credit compared to a pay-down of more than $4.5 billion during August 2001. According to figures released this week by the Federal Reserve, revolving credit is growing at an annual rate 6.5% compared to -2.2% one year ago. Since the first of this year consumer revolving credit has grown by $33.5 billion. Bank credit card debt at mid-year was $611.4 billion according to CardData (www.carddata.com). Bank credit card outstandings at mid-year were growing at an annual rate of 7.8% while overall revolving credit was growing at an annual rate of 2.9% in August. According to the government figures released yesterday, American consumers were $1.730 trillion in debt, exclusive of home mortgages during August. The FRB also reported that average interest rates for all credit card accounts now stands at 13.37% and 13.26% for accounts assessed interest. Rates for 48-month new car loans stands at 5.95% while rates for a 24-month personal loan average 11.28%.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL
($billions)
Aug 02 Jul 02 Jun 02 May 02 Apr 02 Mar 02 Feb 02
GRWTH: 6.5% 10.6 6.0 4.1 8.0 4.8 2.2
$OWED: $725.9 722.0 715.6 712.1 708.7 705.4 705.0
Jan 02 Dec 01 Nov 01 Oct 01 Sep 01 Aug 01 Jul 01
GRWTH: 1.8% -9.7 12.7 -7.1 0.6 -2.2 -3.7
$OWED: $702.4 692.4 698.0 686.4 692.7 693.5 698.1
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 10/07/02; For complete
historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com).
