The abundant rain across much of country this spring may have dampened consumer credit card spending. During April, Americans added $1.4 billion in revolving credit, mostly credit cards, compared to $2.6 billion one year ago. According to preliminary figures released Friday afternoon by the Federal Reserve, revolving consumer credit stood at $722.6 billion, at the end of April, compared to $705.0 billion one year ago. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the first quarter was $645.6 billion, or roughly 89% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). This compares to $660.9 billion at the end of 2002. According to the latest government figures, American consumers were $1.755 trillion in debt, exclusive of home mortgages during April.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL
($billions)
Apr 03 Mar 03 Feb 03 Jan 03 Dec 02 Nov 02 Oct 02
GRWTH: 2.3% 4.4 5.9 5.2 -6.7 -1.4 1.6
$OWED: $722.6b 721.2 718.6 715.5 712.4 716.8 717.9
Sep 02 Aug 02 Jul 02 Jun 02 May 02 Apr 02 Mar 02
GRWTH: 3.0% 6.2 6.0 4.1 8.0 4.8 2.2
$OWED: $721.3b 719.5 715.6 712.1 708.7 705.4 705.0
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 06/06/03
BANK CREDIT CARD OUTSTANDINGS HISTORICAL
(VISA, MasterCard, Discover, American Express)
1Q/2003: $645.6 Billion
4Q/2002: $660.9 Billion
3Q/2002: $626.4 Billion
2Q/2002: $611.4 Billion
1Q/2002: $589.6 Billion
Source: CardData (www.carddata.com)
