Total personal finance commitments rose 4.1 per cent in August, seasonally adjusted, to $7.184 billion, from $6.903 billion in July, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said today.
Total commercial finance rose 5.6 per cent, seasonally adjusted, to $28.511 billion, from $27.012 billion in July.
Figures show lending on a flat trend
Lease finance fell 9.4 per cent in August to $398 million, compared with $440 million in July.
Housing finance for owner occupation fell 1.7 per cent to $16.543 billion in August from $16.831 billion in July.
Meanwhile, monthly demand for personal loans other than mortgages topped the $7 billion mark for the first time in 18 months in a further sign of growing confidence in the economy.
The August data released today by the ABS showed personal loans - fixed and revolving credit - rose by a seasonally adjusted 4.1 per cent compared to July to $7.18 billion.
Commercial loans also rose by 5.6 per cent to $28.51 billion in August, but remain about half the size of the record $50.18 billion set in January 2008.
Lease finance dropped by 9.4 per cent to $398 million in the month, while housing loans for owner-occupation fell 1.7 per cent to $16.54 billion.
The results are somewhat dated by last week’s official interest rate rise by the Reserve Bank, which lifted the cash rate by 25 basis points to 3.25 per cent, a move matched by retail banks on their variable home loan rates.
Wednesday’s Westpac-Melbourne Institute consumer sentiment survey will gauge the response to the rate increase, the first in 19 months.
Tomorrow's National Australia Bank monthly business survey that also monitors confidence among companies, was taken before the interest rate decision.
AAP
