Details from the December 2016 UK mortgage approvals, BOE consumer credit & M4 money supply data report 31 January 2017
Prior 67,505. Revised to 67,461
Net mortgage lending 3.798bn vs 3.300bn exp. Prior 3.175bn. Revised to 3.141bn
BOE consumer credit 1.039bn vs 1.7000bn exp. Prior 1.1926b. Revised to 1.929bn
M4 money supply -0.5% vs 0.4% prior
Net mortgage lending was higher but consumer credit fell. There's probably some seasonality in there as we saw a strong consumer on Oct & Nov, which waned in Dec, if we just take retail sales as a yard stick. That train of thought is somewhat backed up by the amount of that credit that was put on credit cards. 228m was used vs 544m in Nov.
In business lending, SME lending fell 302m from 83m in Nov.
One other item of note was that foreign investors net sold gilts for the first time since July, just after the Brexit vote. 2.970bn was sold vs buying of 15.577bn in Nov. Something to watch going forward. The question is where did they put the proceeds? Did it stay in the UK via an asset switch, or leave the country for pastures new?
UK consumer credit
