LONDON (dpa-AFX) - UK mortgage approvals rose to a four-month high in December, the Bank of England said on Tuesday.
The number of mortgage approvals for house purchases, an indicator of future borrowing, increased to 71,015 in December from 67,859 in November. Approvals reached its highest level since September.
Meanwhile, secured lending decreased to GBP 3.6 billion from GBP 3.8 billion in November. Likewise, gross lending fell to GBP 21.7 billion from GBP 22.4 billion in the previous month.
The tick up in mortgage approvals in December suggested that the dip in housing market activity expected after the stamp duty holiday has already come and gone, and that transactions will stay above prepandemic levels in 2022, Andrew Wishart, an economist at Capital Economics, said.
Individuals borrowed GBP 0.8 billion in consumer credit in December. Within the total, GBP 0.4 billion represented additional borrowing on credit cards, and GBP 0.4 billion in borrowing in other forms of consumer credit.
Consumer credit climbed 1.4 percent annually after rising 0.8 percent in November. Further, data showed that UK businesses repaid GBP 0.3 billion of bank loans in December compared to net borrowing of GBP 2.3 billion in November.
Net borrowing by large non-financial businesses totaled GBP 0.3 billion in December, compared to GBP 3.1 billion in November. Small and Medium sized non-financial businesses repaid GBP 0.6 billion, on net, falling from a GBP 0.8 billion net repayment in the previous month.
The annual growth rate of borrowing by all large businesses increased to 1.9 percent from 1.5 percent in November.
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