Friday, 31 January 2020

Credit growth slides to 117-month low

Housing off the mat

Domestic credit growth of +0.2 per cent in December 2019 wasn't enough to stop annual credit growth slumping to the lowest level in 117 months at just +2.41 per cent, as Australia flirts with recession-like conditions in early 2020. 


Business credit growth (+2.5 per cent) and personal credit growth (-5.1 per cent) remained notably weak, even if the data series has evidently been disrupted by FinTech. 

Housing credit is off the mat, though, bouncing off multi-decade lows towards the end of the year to +3.1 per cent. 


Investor credit growth was running at a record low over the year to December, sitting in negative territory, with the rebound all having been driven by homebuyers. 


Early indications suggest comfortable double digit housing price growth in the capital cities in 2020.


Investors are likely to return to the market in 2020 after a two-year hiatus.

The #experts tell me that interest rates must be kept on hold to keep a lid on excessive credit growth (!), yet we've never seen credit growth as low as this outside of the early 1990s recession and the GFC.

I’d roll out the Goodfellas gif if it hadn’t been done so many times before.

And, by the way, global growth is in the midst of a nasty demand shock, at a time when global growth was already soft, with global trade contracting.