The British Bankers' Association (BBA) reports that latest figures from the major British Banking Groups for October 2006 show that net mortgage lending rose by an underlying £5.5bn. This was between the £5.4bn rise in September and the monthly average of +£5.6bn over the previous six months. Unsecured personal lending rose slightly in October, continuing the picture of little change, on average, over the previous six months. Loans & overdrafts rose by £0.8bn, whilst underlying credit card borrowing fell by £0.4bn; the sixth successive decline.
Total sterling lending to the UK private sector showed a net underlying increase of £11.8bn (+0.9%) to £1,261bn. This was well up on the previous month's underlying rise of £9.6bn but below the average of £13.3bn over the previous six months.
Lending to real estate companies rose by £1.9bn; lending to manufacturing and to hotels & restaurants each rose by £0.2bn whilst lending to wholesale & retail trade fell by £0.3bn, transport, storage & communication fell by £0.5bn (reversing the rise last month) and lending to construction fell by £0.6bn.
David Dooks, BBA director of statistics, said: "October's net mortgage lending continued on the high plateau we have seen since the summer, with demand remaining robust ahead of the November increase in interest rates. The picture in unsecured lending was mixed. Credit card lending continued to fall, as it has in most months of this year, though other consumer credit was stronger than of late. The weak personal deposit inflow in October reflected the reversal of September end-month effects which produced the high figure seen in the previous month."
