The Bank of England's (BoE) monthly statistics on money and credit revealed that the amount of consumer credit in Britain rose by GBP1.513 billion in May, following a revised GBP0.79 billion increase (from GBP0.73 billion) in April. Economists had predicted an advance of GBP1.45 billion.
Meanwhile, net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals decreased from GBP2.23 billion in April to GBP1.21 billion in May. The annual growth rate for net mortgage lending rose to 0.3% in May, after a rise to 0.2% in April (the first such rise in the growth rate since October 2022). According to the BoE’s data, gross lending increased for the fourth consecutive month to GBP22.2 billion in May, up from GBP21.1 billion in April, while gross repayments saw an increase of GBP1.2 billion over the same period to GBP 20.5 billion.
The report also revealed that the number of mortgage approvals for house purchases fell to 59,990 in May from a revised 60,820 (from 61,140) in April, exceeding economists’ expectations of 59,900.
Net lending to individuals in the UK was GBP2.7 billion in May compared to GBP3.1 billion in the previous month, and the forecast of economists at the level of GBP3.3 billion.