Personal borrowing trumps business

By Leith van Onselen

The ABS this morning released Lending Finance data for the month of March, which registered seasonally-adjusted rises in all major categories except for Lease Finance, which fell sharply (see next table).

In seasonally-adjusted terms, the value of personal finance commitments rose by 0.6% and was up by 9.2% over the year:

The value of housing finance commitments rose by 5.8% in March and is up 12.2% over the year:

Commercial finance rose by 1.5% in March, but were down -6.2% over the year and remain well below pre-GFC highs:

By contrast, the value of lease finance commitments fell by -4.1% over the month and were down by -1.8% over the past year:

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