Confidence in easy loans drops as weak credit growth revealed

Credit growth remained feeble in April, increasing by just $1 billion or 0.3 per cent in all across the household, business and farm sectors.

Compared with April last year the increase was 1.9 per cent, or zero in real terms.

Home loans, which make up 56 per cent of all lending, were up just 0.2 per cent for the month and 1.4 per cent for the year.

That is in line with growth rates recorded over the past year, and a stark contrast to the double-digit annual growth rates recorded during the housing boom between 2003 and 2007.

Lending to the business sector accounted for 62 per cent of April's credit growth. It was up 0.8 per cent for the month and 3.1 per cent for the year.

The Reserve Bank in last month's Financial Stability Report said businesses had resumed borrowing over the past six months, modestly arresting the earlier decline in debt.

The bank also noted a pick-up in corporate bond issuance, bypassing the banks, though the amount of debt outstanding in that form at around $17 billion is modest compared with the $77 billion businesses owe banks.

Its March survey of credit conditions suggested the terms on which banks were offering credit had eased over the past six months, reflecting heightened competition.

But the National Bank's May business confidence survey, released yesterday, recorded a drop, from 11 per cent to 8 per cent, in the proportion of firms expecting it to be easier to get credit in 12 months' time.

Farm debt levels were unchanged and up 2.1 per cent on April last year. Compared with April 2010 it is up just 1 per cent.

But farm debt had quadrupled over the decade before that in nominal terms.

And relative to agricultural export earnings, while off its peak, farm debt has more than doubled over the past 10 years.