In another sign that consumers have pulled back on spending and debt accumulation, revolving credit grew a mere 2.1% during August. American consumers added only $1.2 billion to new revolving debt during the month versus $5.9 billion last August. According to preliminary figures released last week by the Federal Reserve, revolving debt stood at $702.6 billion during August. Non-revolving debt edged up slightly to $888.3 billion. At the end of August, American consumers were $1.591 trillion in debt, exclusive of home mortgages. Revolving debt is most credit card debt. At mid-year consumers owed $567.2 billion on 555.9 million VISA, MasterCard, Discover, and American Express cards, according to CardData (http://www.carddata.com).

                REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL 
                     
                         ($billions)

            Aug01   Jul01   Jun01   May01   Apr01   Mar01    Feb01 
%GRWTH:     2.1%      1.9     2.1     4.5    14.2    11.9     20.8 
$OWED:     $702.6   701.4   700.3   699.0   697.6   688.2    681.4 

           Jan01    Dec00   Nov00   Oct00   Sep00   Aug00    Jul00 
%GRWTH:    11.6%      5.0    10.9     4.7     7.8    12.6      6.7 
$OWED:     $670.3   663.4   660.6   654.8   649.3   645.1    638.2 

Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 10/5/01; 
For complete historical data visit http://www.carddata.com.