Revolving debt is growing about a third of last year’s rate, as Americans added $1.2 billion to total revolving debt during August. One year ago, U.S. consumers added $3.9 billion to revolving debt during the month of August. However, the August figures, released Tuesday by the Federal Reserve, represented a sharp increase over the prior two months. During June consumers reduced total revolving debt by a revised $2.0 billion, and in July revolving credit was up 80 basis points or by $500 million. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the second quarter was $646.2 billion, or roughly 90% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com).
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Aug03 Jul 03 Jun03 May 03 Apr 03 Mar 03 Feb 03
GRWTH: 2.1% 0.8 -2.4 7.7 3.4 4.1 5.9
$OWED: $727.6 726.4 725.9 727.9 722.8 720.7 718.6
Jan03 Dec 02 Nov 02 Oct 02 Sep 02 Aug 02 Jul 02
GRWTH: 5.2% -6.7 -1.4 1.6 3.0 6.2 6.0
$OWED: $715.5 712.4 716.8 717.9 721.3 719.5 715.6
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 10/07/03;
For complete historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com).
