Consumer revolving credit jumped sharply in March by $6.8 billion after a sluggish first two months of the year. Revolving consumer credit set a new record of more than $888 billion in March, growing at an annual rate of 9.2%. Based on revised figures, revolving debt rose 2.9% in February and 0.8% in January. According to data released yesterday by the Federal Reserve, total revolving credit has expanded by $9.5 billion since the start of the new year. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the fourth quarter was about $745 billion or roughly 85% of total revolving credit, according to CardData ([www.carddata.com][1]). Store and gas credit cards had about $105 billion in outstandings at year-end 2006. At the end of March, Americans were $2425.5 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages.
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REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
Mar 07 Feb 07 Jan 07 Dec 06 Nov 06 Oct 06
GRWTH: 9.2% 2.9 0.8 8.4 14.7 6.4
$OWED: $888.2 881.4 879.2 878.7 877.2 865.6
Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 5/7/07;
For complete historical data, visit CardData (www.carddata.com)
[1]: http://www.carddata.com
