Economy

Consumer Credit Rises Nearly 6% in February

Paul Ausick

Published: April 7, 2016 3:16 pm

Last Updated: January 13, 2020 11:01 am

The Federal Reserve on Thursday released its preliminary report on consumer credit for the month of February 2016. On a seasonally adjusted basis, consumer credit rose 5.75% in the month, up from 5.1% growth posted in January, and well below the December increase of 7.8%.

In dollar terms, consumer credit rose by $17.3 billion month over month. Analysts had been expecting an increase of $14 billion.

Total consumer debt rose to $3.57 trillion in February of which $940.6 billion is revolving (mostly credit card) debt and $2.63 trillion is non-revolving debt. Revolving debt rose by just $3 billion and non-revolving debt rose by $15 billion. Revolving credit comprises primarily credit card balances and non-revolving credit includes motor vehicle loans, student loans, among others, and may be secured or unsecured. Mortgage debt is not included in the report.

The largest holder of consumer debt is the federal government which holds about $984.2 billion in debt, including certain types of student loans. Banks hold about $754.4 billion in revolving debt and around $646.8 billion in non-revolving debt. Finance companies and credit unions are also large holders of non-revolving debt, with February totals of about $618.6 billion and $299.2 billion, respectively.

Credit card issuers Mastercard, Visa, American Express, and Discover were already trading lower Thursday afternoon, but did get a small upward jolt following the report.