(4 July 2011 – Australia) Total credit provided to the private sector by banks and other lenders rose 0.3 percent in May after no increase was recorded in April.Over the year to May, the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA) reported that total credit rose 3.1 percent.
That was less than a third of the average growth rate of 10.9 percent over the preceding decade.
Other personal credit outstanding was unchanged in May after falling by 0.3 percent in April, with annual growth at 0.8 percent, consistent with the recent trend for households to save the highest proportion of their income since the mid-1980s.
Business credit rose weakly, by just 0.1 percent in May, after a fall of 0.5 percent in April, to be down by 1.5 percent from a year earlier, consistent with subdued conditions in most sectors outside mining, where funding is coming from equity investment and retained profits rather than debt.