LONDON: Bank of England figures published earlier showed that lending to British consumers grew at the fastest rate since before the financial crisis in March.
Consumer credit grew by £1.24bn, beating forecasts of an £800m increase. It was the biggest monthly increase since February 2008, and the biggest annual jump since May 2006.
The backdrop for consumers has improved recently, with inflation falling to an all-time low of zero signalling an end to six years of falling real pay.
Credit growth continues to perform robustly, suggesting that households remain upbeat. Net consumer credit rose £1.2bn on the month – you have to go back 10 years to when the UK was previously seeing that level of borrowing on a consistent basis.
Mortgage approvals fell slightly however, despite mortgage rates falling to new record lows. There were 61,341 loans approved for house purchase last month, compared with 61,523 in February.
March’s figure was up on the previous six-month average of 60,303, but below the 67,033 approvals in the same month of 2014.
