Credit growth remains subdued

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The RBA has just released its Financial Aggregates for May. It is more of the same with credit growth remaining subdued, with housing credit growing at the slowest rate in 35 years of current data and at a three month annualised pace of just 5.2%.

Below is a summary of the RBA’s release with charts of the key data.

May 2011

Release date: 30 June 2011

Total credit provided to the private sector by financial intermediaries rose by 0.3 per cent over May 2011, after being flat in April. Over the year to May, total credit rose by 3.1 per cent.

Housing credit increased by 0.5 per cent over May, following an increase of 0.4 per cent over April. Over the year to May, housing credit rose by 6.2 per cent.

Other personal credit was flat over May, after falling by 0.3 per cent over April. Over the year to May, other personal credit increased by 0.8 per cent.

Business credit rose by 0.1 per cent over May, after falling by 0.5 per cent over April. Over the year to May, business credit declined by 1.5 per cent.

Over the month of May, M3 rose by 0.9 per cent and broad money increased by 0.9 per cent. Over the year to May, broad money grew by 8.4 per cent.

All growth rates for the financial aggregates are seasonally adjusted, and adjusted for the effects of breaks in the series as recorded in the footnotes to tables. Figures showing the levels of financial aggregates are not adjusted for series breaks. Historical levels and growth rates for the financial aggregates have been revised owing to the resubmission of data by some financial intermediaries, the re-estimation of seasonal factors and the incorporation of securitisation data.

Further details are shown in the following tables:

Growth in Selected Financial Aggregates – D1 [XLS]
Lending and Credit Aggregates – D2 [XLS]
Monetary Aggregates – D3 [XLS]

About the author
Leith van Onselen is Chief Economist at the MB Fund and MB Super. He is also a co-founder of MacroBusiness. Leith has previously worked at the Australian Treasury, Victorian Treasury and Goldman Sachs.