Money and Credit - July 2019

Published on 30 August 2019

Overview

These monthly statistics on borrowing and deposits by households and businesses are used by the Bank’s policy committees to understand economic trends and developments in the banking system.

Key points:

Mortgage market activity has remained stable, notwithstanding mortgage approvals for house purchase being at their highest level since July 2017, and net mortgage lending rising in July.
Net consumer credit rose by £0.9 billion in July, broadly in line with the average seen over the past year.
UK businesses made net repayments of £2.5 billion of finance in July. This was the first net repayment since February.

References in the text point to the summary tables below. For further statistics, please see our interactive charts and Bankstats tables.

Lending to individuals (Tables A-E)

Consumer credit (Tables B and C):

The extra amount borrowed by consumers in order to buy goods and services was £0.9 billion in July. This was broadly in line with the £1.0 billion average over the past 12 months, but below the £1.5 billion average from January 2016 to June 2018. Within the July figure, the extra amount borrowed for other loans and advances fell on the month to £0.6 billion, while net credit card borrowing remained stable.

The annual growth rate of consumer credit remained at 5.5% in July, markedly lower than its peak of 10.9% in November 2016. This slowing reflects the weaker monthly lending flows over most of the past year.

Chart 1: Consumer credit

Seasonally adjusted

Mortgage lending (Tables D and E):

Mortgage market activity has remained stable, notwithstanding some strengthening in key indicators. Net mortgage borrowing by households picked up in July, rising to £4.6 billion. While this was the strongest since March 2016, it reflected a fall in repayments rather than an increase in new lending. The annual growth rate remained at 3.2%, close to the level seen since 2016. Mortgage approvals for house purchase (an indicator for future lending) increased in July to 67,300. This was the strongest since July 2017, but remains within the very narrow range seen over the past two years.

Lending to businesses (Tables F-I)

Businesses can raise funds by borrowing from banks (via loans) or from financial markets (via instruments such as bonds and commercial paper, or with equity). Businesses repaid £2.5 billion to these sources in July, the first net repayment since February.

The net repayment was driven by a £2 billion net repayment to banks. As a result, the annual growth rate of bank lending to UK businesses fell to 3.0%, down from 4.4% in June. Within this, the growth rate of borrowing by large businesses fell to 4.2%, while the growth of SME borrowing was unchanged at 0.8%.

UK businesses also made net repayments to financial markets. Net repayments of equity were £0.9 billion in July, whilst net repayments of commercial paper were £0.7 billion. This was the fifth consecutive month of net repayments of commercial paper. Net bond issuance (a form of longer-term borrowing from financial markets) by businesses was positive, at £0.5 billion in July, but below the £1.3 billion average issuance over the past 6 months.

Chart 2: Net financed raised by PNFCs

Seasonally adjusted

There is a discrepancy between the total of net finance raised and its components due to the seasonal adjustment methodology.

Broad money (Table J)

Broad money (M4ex) is a measure of the total amount of money held by households, non-financial businesses (PNFC’s) and financial corporations that do not act to intermediate financial transactions (NIOFCs). In July, total money holdings rose by £18.9 billion, the largest monthly increase since May 2018. The increase on the month was driven by PNFCs, for which money held rose to £5.1 billion following a fall in June.

Money held by NIOFCs - which is volatile - rose by £10.5 billion. The amount held by households rose to £3.3 billion, a little lower than the £4.8 billion average over the past 6 months. Within this, households continued to primarily make deposits into ISAs and interest bearing sight deposits.