**MNI 5 Things: Consumer Credit Growth Weakest Since Nov 2012

By Jai Lakhani and David Robinson

     **LONDON (MNI) - The following are the key points from the March money and

credit data release published Tuesday by the Bank of England:

     - The data revealed net consumer credit fell to its weakest since November

2012 at stg0.254 billion after a February prior of stg1.660 billion. This blows

a hole in the belief that consumers are happily financing spending through

unsecured borrowing. Recent consumer sentiment surveys have pointed to weak

confidence and these data reflected both softer demand and higher repayments of

unsecured borrowing.

     - Mortgage approvals continued to drift lower in March after falling from

February's 63,781 to 62,914. This was also below the previous six-month average

of 64,544 and well below the recent peak of 67,018 in January. The findings show

clearly the story of a market lacking momentum and is line with other data

survey results. BOE Director Alex Brazier said recently that the aggregate data

reflect a combination of "a very sharp slowdown in the buy-to-let market",

masked by a "pick-up in lending to owner-occupier mortgage holders."

     - The average interest rates on the total stock of mortgages remained at

2.51%, with the effective fixed mortgage rate at its lowest since the series

began at 2.35%.

     -Interest rates for new borrowers however edged higher to 2.04% from 2.02%

in February and 1.96% in January. The quoted rates data showed that higher

loan-to-value (LTV) interest rates had decreased while lower loan-to-value

interest rates had increased. For example, the 2 year fixed 95% LTV fell to

3.77% from 3.82% which is the lowest rate since January 2017. Furthermore, the

75% LTV increased to 1.53% from 1.49%.

     -Not only was net consumer credit disappointing but net business lending

growth shrunk to zero from a February prior of stg2.6 billion. The zero increase

in net business lending was well below the previous six month average of stg1.4

billion. Net equity and bond issuance by non-financial corporations decreased by

stg0.4 billion each, while net loans by monetary financial institutions fell to

stg0.9 billion from a February prior of stg2.1 billion.

--MNI London Bureau; tel: +44 203-586-2225; email: les.commons@marketnews.com

--MNI London Bureau; +44 203 865 3828; email: jai.lakhani@marketnews.com

[TOPICS: MABDS$,MAUDR$,MAUDS$,M$B$$$,M$E$$$,M$U$$$]