U.K. Household Demand for Mortgages, Credit Eased in May

(Bloomberg) -- Lending to British households eased slightly inMay, according to Bank of England figures published Monday.

Mortgage approvals fell to 65,409, 1% fewer than in April, andunsecured credit grew 822 million pounds ($1.04 billion). Thatleft the annual growth rate of consumer credit at 5.6%, theleast for more than five years.

Actual mortgage lending grew 3.1 billion pounds in May, thesmallest increase since April 2017.

The figures follow a volatile two months that saw credit demanddip in March amid fears Britain was about to crash out of theEuropean Union, only to recover in April after the Brexitdeadline was extended.

The slowdown in consumer-credit growth from 968 million poundsin April was driven by the category that includes personalloans, car finance and overdrafts. Net credit-card lendingpicked up to 327 million pounds.

Lending to non-financial business rose 1.46 billion pounds inMay. Non-resident investors bought 10.4 billion pounds of U.K.government bonds following purchases of 1.2 billion pounds theprevious month.

The BOE said household deposits increased by 6.5 billion pounds,the most since September 2016. The jump reflected greater flowsinto non-interest-bearing deposit accounts.

©2019 Bloomberg L.P.