Consumer credit up for 7th straight month in April
U.S. consumer credit outstanding shot up by $6.25 billion during April after a downwardly revised $4.82 billion rise in March, reflecting a rise in student and car loan.
The rise in total consumer credit reported by the Federal Reserve was the seventh straight monthly increase and was well above forecasts by Wall Street economists for a $5.33-billion April gain.
All the increase in April consumer credit occurred in a category called “nonrevolving credit” that takes in items like student loans and loans to buy cars.
Before the April data was released, Wells Fargo Securities had noted that “what appears to be a turnaround in the credit cycle is mostly an increase in student loan debt as people go back to school to improve skills amid high unemployment” and as tuition costs rise.
Prior to the current string of seven monthly rises in overall consumer credit, there were 20 months in a row in which outstanding credit had contracted.
The other key category of credit, so-called “revolving credit” that includes credit-card debt, shrank by $943.5 million in April following a $36.7 million increase in March.
That indicated that consumers remained wary about incurring debt on their credit cards, especially when prices for food and gasoline were on the rise and pinching disposable incomes.
Processing your request, Please wait....
