Consumer revolving credit edged up in September as Americans continued to slow down their spending amidst lower credit limits and income. Revolving credit, mostly credit card related, rose by $900 million or 1.2% per annum, after adding more than $5 billion in July. Based on revised figures, revolving debt rose by 0.4% in August after growing by 5.6% in July. According to data released by the Federal Reserve, total revolving credit has expanded by about $70 billion over the past twelve months. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the second quarter was about $825 billion or roughly 85% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). Store and gas credit cards had about $109 billion in outstandings at year-end 2007. At the end of September, Americans were $2588 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages. This figure is about $7 billion higher than the prior month.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Sep 08 Aug 08 Jul 08 Jun 08 May 08 Apr 08
GRWTH: 1.2% 0.4 5.6 3.4 7.1 0.3
$OWED: $971.4 970.5 970.1 965.6 963.2 956.8
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 11/7/08;
For complete historical data, visit CardData (www.carddata.com)
