Economy

Consumer Credit Rose Again in October

Jon C. Ogg

Published: December 7, 2016 3:32 pm

Last Updated: January 12, 2020 5:01 pm

Consumer Credit might not be a market moving event, but it is an important issue to find out what consumers are financing, how they are financing it, and how much they are actually borrowing. Unfortunately, this Federal Reserve report is an October reading so it means that it was based entirely before the 2016 election.

In October, consumer credit rose at a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.25%. Revolving credit rose at an annual rate of 3%, while non-revolving credit rose at an annual rate of 6%. In raw dollar terms this came to a net gain of $16 billion in October.

Consumer credit’s consensus estimate by Bloomberg was for a gain of $19.0 billion in October, which would have been in line with September’s unrevised gain of $19.3 billion. That September reading was revised higher to $21.8 billion, so that makes this weaker gain look a bit more in-line than it looks if you do not consider the revision.

The total consumer credit, adding up revolving and non-revolving credit, was $3.7273 trillion in October — a figure which gained annually going back the recession.

Revolving credit has been climbing throughout 2016. This revolving credit used was $974.9 billion in August, then $979.0 billion in September, and now $981.3 billion in October.

Non-revolving credit remains this economic report’s larger source of growth due to student loans and loan demand for financing vehicle purchases. The non-revolving credit was $2.7146 trillion in August, and that rose to $2.7323 trillion in September and finally to $2.746 trillion in October.

As always, consumer credit is not a report that moves the markets. That being said, the Dow Jones Industrial Average hit an all-time high with the Dow crossing 19,500 for the first time ever.