The Australian Bureau of Statistics has released Lending Finance data for the month of February, which registered a seasonally-adjusted 0.7% fall in total finance commitments, with the 2.5% fall in commercial finance loans more than offsetting rises in the other broad components.
In trend terms, total finance commitments rose by 1.3% in February to be up 25.5% over the year, with increases recorded across all of the four broad components (see next table).
The below chart plots total lending in trend terms. As you can see, the volume of lending is fast approaching the highs reached in December 2007, prior to the onset of the Global Financial Crisis (see next chart).
The pick-up has been driven by a recent acceleration of both commercial and housing lending, although commercial remains well below former highs (see below charts).
