Americans blew a big hole in revolving credit during April, slashing about $3.2 billion off the total, the biggest one-month drop in eighteen months. The sharp decline could indicate consumer desire to pare down debt before rate increases hit later this year. At an annualized rate, consumer credit declined more than 5% during April. This is the second monthly decline this year, following a 60 basis point decline in February. According to revised figures released this week by the Federal Reserve, at the end of April 2004, Americans owed $750.9 billion in revolving credit, compared to $722.8 billion for April 2003. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the first quarter was $658.9 billion, or roughly 88% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). At the end of April, Americans were $2016.1 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.
| REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions) |
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| Apr 04 | Mar 04 | Feb 04 | Jan04 | Dec03 | Nov03 | Oct03 |
| GRWTH: | -5.1% | 6.0 | -0.6 | 13.0 | 3.3 | 4.9 | 4.1 |
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| $OWED: | $750.9 | 754.1 | 750.4 | 753.0 | 743.4 | 743.8 | 740.5 |
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| Sep03 | Aug 03 | Jul03 | Jun03 | May03 | Apr03 | Mar03 |
| GRWTH: | 6.8% | 3.4 | 1.4 | 2.7 | 7.7 | 3.4 | 4.5 |
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| $OWED: | $737.3 | 729.1 | 726.8 | 729.7 | 727.9 | 722.8 | 724.8 |
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| Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 6/07/04; |
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| For complete historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com) |
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