The Bank of England’s (BoE) monthly statistics on money and credit revealed
that the amount of consumer credit in Britain rose GBP1.23 billion in November,
following a revised GBP0.83 billion gain (from GBP0.71 billion) in October. Economists had forecast a GBP0.80
billion advance. In y-o-y terms, consumer credit went up 0.4 percent in November,
following a 1.0 percent drop in the previous month. This
marked the first annual increase since March 2020.
Meanwhile, net mortgage borrowing by the UK individuals was GBP3.69
billion compared to a revised GBP1.15 billion (from GBP1.61 billion) in October.
Economists had forecast GBP3.55 billion. According to the BoE’s data, gross
lending climbed to GBP22.15 billion from GBP19.54 billion in the previous
month, while gross repayments jumped to GBP19.36 billion from GBP18.24 billion a
month ago.
The report also showed that the number of mortgages approvals for house
purchases slipped to 66,964 in November (the lowest level since June 2020) from 67,103
in October, but exceeded economists' forecast of 65,400.
Net lending to individuals in the UK was GBP4.93 billion in November compared
to a revised GBP1.98 billion (from GBP2.31 billion) in the previous month.