U.K. credit card lending rises strongly in August

The U.K. Finance figures on lending at the major retail bank implied that the strong sales growth in the summer continued to be partially underpinned by solid credit card lending, which rose 5.8 percent year-on-year in August, 0.5 percentage point higher on the month and the most solid annual rate for six months.

In all, consumer credit growth, however, was lower, as outstanding overdraft borrowing dropped over 7.5 percent year-on-year, to leave the annual rise in personal loans and overdrafts at 2 percent year-on-year, the lowest rate for over four years. There was also a fall in gross mortgage lending in August, falling 1.2 percent year-on-year, with the number of approvals for house purchase down over 4 percent year-on-year.

“But there was a strong rise in remortgaging approvals, up by more than 9 percent Y/Y as homeowners continued to take advantage of still very low rates despite the BoE's rate hike that month”, stated Daiwa Capital Market Research.

At 18:00 GMT the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of British Pound was highly bullish at 125.495, while the FxWirePro's Hourly Strength Index of US Dollar was neutral at -2.12207. For more details on FxWirePro's Currency Strength Index, visit http://www.fxwirepro.com/currencyindex