The revolving debt machine may be cranking up as the economy begins to recover. Consumer revolving credit for September and October posted strong gains compared to last year. During October, Americans added $2.2 billion to revolving credit at an annual growth rate of 3.6%, more than twice the rate of growth one-year ago. Revised figures, released last week by the Federal Reserve, also show that September’s figures were better than previously reported. September’s revised growth rate is 6.5% compared to 3.0% for September 2002. For October, consumers owed $735.3 billion in revolving credit, mostly credit card debt. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the third quarter was $645.7 billion, or roughly 88% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). At the end of October, Americans were $1977.3 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.
REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Oct03 Sept03 Aug03 Jul 03 Jun03 May03 Apr03
GRWTH: 3.6% 6.5 3.4 1.4 -2.4 7.7 3.4
$OWED: $735.3 733.1 729.1 726.8 725.9 727.9 722.8
Mar 03 Feb03 Jan03 Dec02 Nov02 Oct02 Sep02
GRWTH: 4.1% 5.9 5.2 -6.7 -1.4 1.6 3.0
$OWED: $720.7 718.6 715.5 712.4 716.8 717.9 721.3
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 12/05/03;
For complete historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com).
