Reply #9: Consumer credit posts record drop in November [View All]

[ozymandius]

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Consumer borrowing dropped by a record $7.94 billion in November, a Federal Reserve report showed on Thursday, the latest evidence that households were unwilling or unable to take on more credit.

That was the biggest decline since the data series began in January 1943, and was far steeper than the $0.5 billion dip that economists polled by Reuters had expected.

The November decline represented a drop of 3.7 percent, the largest percentage fall since January 1998, when it was down 4.3 percent.

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Non-revolving credit, which includes closed-end loans for big-ticket items like cars, boats, college educations and holidays, fell $5.18 billion, or 3.9 percent, to $1.597 trillion.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090108/bs_nm/us_usa_economy_credit_1