May Debt (07/13/04)

FULL STORY:

After three consecutive months of decline, Americans reversed course in May, adding $1.6 billion in revolving credit. At an annualized rate, consumer credit jumped nearly 3% during May perhaps impacted by a slowdown in consolidation financing via home mortgages. The increase is still significantly lower than one-year ago when consumers added more than $5 billion to revolving credit. According to revised figures released Thursday by the Federal Reserve, at the end of May 2004 Americans owed $742.8 billion in revolving credit, compared to $727.9 billion for May 2003. Bank credit card debt (excluding store and gas credit cards) at the end of the first quarter was $658.9 billion, or roughly 88% of total revolving credit, according to CardData (www.carddata.com). At the end of May, Americans were $2031.2 billion in debt, excluding home mortgages. 

                REVOLVING CREDIT HISTORICAL ($billions)
           May 04   Apr 04   Mar 04   Feb 04   Jan04   Dec03   Nov03
 GRWTH:     2.6%    -5.0     -2.1     -0.6     13.0     3.3     4.9
 $OWED:    $742.8   741.2    744.3   750.4     753.0   743.4   743.8

           Oct 03   Sep03    Aug 03   Jul03    Jun03   May03  Apr03
 GRWTH:     4.1%    6.8       3.4      1.4      2.7     7.7    3.4
 $OWED:   $740.5   737.3     729.1    726.8    729.7   727.9  722.8

         Source: Federal Reserve; revised figures as of 7/08/04;
    For complete historical data visit CardData (www.carddata.com)