Consumer Credit Rose $21.4 Billion in March

Consumer credit surged in March rising by $21.4 billion, its largest one month gain since 2001. Consumer credit grew at an annualized rate of 10.2% continuing a recent trend of strong growth. In the past five months, consumer credit has grown by $85 billion. Growth over a five month period has only exceeded this rate once, for a five month period in 2000 .

Non-revolving balances continued to drive the increases in credit, growing by $16.2 billion. As we discussed earlier, student loans contributed heavily to this growth. When looking at non-seasonally adjusted numbers, student loan growth accounted for nearly 80% of the overall increase.

Revolving credit grew by $5.2 billion in March, its first gain in three months. This is also the largest gain in revolving credit since November, when consumers were financing holiday purchases.

Read the report.