LONDON (dpa-AFX) - UK mortgage approvals declined in September amid rising mortgage interest rates, official data showed on Thursday.
Mortgage approvals, an indicator of future borrowing, declined to 53,443 in September from 54,814 in August, the Bank of England said. Approvals were forecast to fall moderately to 54,000.
The 'effective' interest rate, which is the actual interest paid on newly drawn mortgages rose to 4.63 percent in September from 4.60 percent in August.
Secured lending increased by GBP 3.86 billion compared to GBP 4.17 billion in the prior month.
Consumer credit decreased to GBP 1.9 billion from GBP 2.7 billion in August. But annual growth in consumer credit rose slightly to 9.8 percent from 9.7 percent.
Within total consumer credit, net borrowing through credit cards dropped to GBP 0.7 billion from GBP 1.3 billion. Likewise, net borrowing through other forms of consumer credit fell to GBP 1.2 billion from GBP 1.4 billion in August.
Data showed that businesses borrowed GBP 9.3 billion in September compared with GBP 4.7 billion in August.
The annual growth rate of borrowing by large businesses increased to 11.7 percent from 9.2 percent and the borrowing by SMEs increased 5.3 percent after climbing 4.7 percent.
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