U.K. credit demand slows, July mortgage approvals lowest since Jan 2015

UK consumer credit growth showed signs of cooling in July, the month after the vote to leave the European Union. Bank of England data released earlier on Tuesday showed that UK consumer credit, which includes credit cards and personal loans, rose 1.181 billion pounds last month, the weakest increase since August 2015, taking the annual growth down to 10.1 percent from 10.3 percent. It was UK's first annual decline in consumer credit growth since December 2014.

Seperate data showed UK mortgage approvals slumped to an 18-month low in July. Mortgage approvals for house purchases fell to 60,912 last month from 64,152 in June, the lowest since January 2015. Net mortgage lending (which lags approvals) rose 2.665 billion pounds in July, compared with a 3.247 billion pound increase in June, the BoE said.

Lending to non-financial firms rose 3.0 percent y/y, the strongest annual growth rate since records started in April 2012. Lending to non-financial firms rose by 2.2 billion pounds, of which smaller companies accounted for 600 million pounds. An underlying gauge of M4, a broad measure of money supply, rose by 14.7 percent on a 3-month annualized basis.

Overseas investors were sellers of net 4.7 billion pounds of gilts, while net purchases remained at 7.9 billion pounds in June, BoE said. Gilts have surged over the past two months as concerns about Brexit boosted the appeal of fixed-income debt.