U.S. consumer debt expanded in July - Fed

Biz.Yahoo/Reuters ^ | September 8, 2003

[Starwind]

U.S. consumer debt expanded in July - Fed
Monday September 8, 3:01 pm ET

WASHINGTON, Sept 8 (Reuters) - U.S. consumers took on more debt in July, attracted to still-low loan rates for cars and other closed-end credit lines, the Federal Reserve said in a report on Monday.

Consumer debt outstanding gained a seasonally adjusted $6.0 billion in July to total $1.774 trillion, the Fed said. The rise was slightly larger than Wall Street economists had been looking for, but most of it came from "non-revolving" loans for cars, mobile homes, education costs, boats or vacations

[Starwind]

The full Federal Reserve report is at CONSUMER CREDIT July 2003

"Consumer credit grew at an annual rate of 4 percent in July, down from a 5 percent rate in the second quarter."

[Starwind]

This was "non-revolvng" credit i.e. 24-48 month loan type of credit that has fallen off.

[Starwind]

For the sake of clarity, non-revolving debt is still growing, just that the growth rate is now 'slowing' (perhaps a better choice of words).