Chart of the Day: Consumer Credit

Interest rates on unsecured credit are up to five times the base rate of interest set by the Bank of England. And consumer confidence is dipping sharply as the economy heads into a slowdown. But that doesnt seem to be stopping UK consumers from piling on the debt onto their credit cards. New figures show that personal borrowing in Britain soared by its highest amount in more than five years in the year to February 2008. The level of new consumer credit surged by nearly £2.4 billion in February with unsecured borrowing growing by £1.6 billion. An act of irrational desperation? Or an inevitable and necessary move when other supplies of credit dry up? Re-mortgaging is become more expensive and less easy to arrange forcing consumers who want to live on the never-never to find fresh sources of funds. It seems crazy to me that people are prepared to do this, why not rein in spending at this time and save some more for the tougher times ahead? Perhaps most people dont expect a recession - or dont think that it will hit them directly?

PowerPoint chart
Consumer_Credit.ppt

Unit 2 Macro: Cyclical and Structural Economic Issues Facing the UK [23 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Positive and Negative Multiplier Effects [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Importance of Productivity [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Real Interest Rates [20 May 2012]
Q&A: What do we need to know about output gaps? [20 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: The Output Gap [20 May 2012]
Revision notes on unemployment [20 May 2012]
Grexit - Andrew Balls on Greece and the Euro [16 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision Notes on Supply-side Policies [10 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Monetary Policy and Inflation Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Trade and Balance of Payments Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Unemployment Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Fiscal Policy Glossary [5 May 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Economic Cycle Glossary [5 May 2012]
Macro Revision - Key Statistics on the UK Economy [4 May 2012]
Robert Schiller - Finance and the Good Society [1 May 2012]
Macro Revision: Putting Things in Context [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Britain back in Recession [29 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: The Euro Zone Crisis (Revision) [22 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: How the Economic Cycle affects Businesses [6 Apr 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Pain in Spain as Fiscal Austerity Bites [1 Apr 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Revision on Capital Investment [30 Mar 2012]
Intergenerational Equity - Fairness and the Slump [28 Mar 2012]
Life in the Slow Lane - UK Growth in 2011 Lags the Euro Area [28 Mar 2012]
George Buckley at the Millfield Economics Society [28 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Evaluating 3 Years of Quantitative Easing [27 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: The Tax on Beer [16 Mar 2012]
Unit 1 Micro: Inequality - The Rise of Fuel Poverty [15 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Video Resources on the Euro Crisis [10 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Policies to Drive Economic Recovery [9 Mar 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Might Oil Prices Bring another Recession? [4 Mar 2012]
Economies hooked on central bank stimulants? [4 Mar 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: King on the UK Economy [15 Feb 2012]
Martin Wolf on Global Shocks [10 Feb 2012]
Trucks are the new way of measuring debt [1 Feb 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Growth and Development - Some Indicators [30 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Money, Debt and the New World Order [22 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: France loses her AAA credit rating [15 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: Economics of Fiscal Deficit Reduction [12 Jan 2012]
Unit 4 Macro: UK Bond Yields Reach Record Lows [11 Jan 2012]
Unit 2 Macro: Factors Driving Business Investment [10 Jan 2012]
Hopes and Fears 2012 [10 Jan 2012]
2011 in Review - The US Economy [27 Dec 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: The UK Housing Market in 2011 [26 Dec 2011]
The Eurozone Crisis Explained (again!) [22 Dec 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: The Rise in Self Employment [17 Dec 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Does UK Manufacturing have a Future? [30 Nov 2011]
Where is the UK Economy? National Output [22 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Should the EU introduce a Tobin Tax? [14 Nov 2011]
AS Macro: The State of British Business [13 Nov 2011]
Eurozone crisis - a selection of resources [12 Nov 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Video Clips on Unemployment [6 Nov 2011]
Unit 3 Micro: Impulses to Change Management Models [5 Nov 2011]
Can the “invisible hand” solve Africa’s poverty? [13 Oct 2011]
UK Unemployment in October 2011 [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Unit Labour Costs and Inflation [12 Oct 2011]
Skidelsky in Madrid [12 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: UK suffers a weak recovery [12 Oct 2011]
Why Is Macroeconomics Such A Mess? [11 Oct 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Homework Assignment on Consumer Spending [3 Oct 2011]
Greek debt decision tree [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Greek Economy at Default’s Door [25 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: IMF Flags up Risks of Double Dip [20 Sep 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Income and Wealth in the UK [12 Sep 2011]
UK Macro: Risks of a Double Dip Recession [12 Sep 2011]
Mixing with the Nobel Economists [4 Sep 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: GDP per person since the credit crunch [19 Aug 2011]
What might happen on August 2nd? [12 Jul 2011]
Unit 4 Macro: Dangers of High Inflation [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 2 Macro: Reducing Unemployment after a Recession [11 Jul 2011]
Unit 1 Micro: High price of petrol drains demand [9 Jul 2011]
AQA ECON4 Context [20 Jun 2011]
A2 Macro: Consumer Spending [30 May 2011]
AQA Macro: Remember to revise inflation [25 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Deflation [24 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Trend Growth [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Economic Recovery [23 May 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Recession [23 May 2011]
A2 Micro: The Importance of Profit [19 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation and Economic Policies [18 May 2011]
EU Economics: Comparing the UK with Europe [14 May 2011]
UK Economy Update: What Mervyn Said [11 May 2011]
AS Micro: What´s really behind the oil price rise? [10 May 2011]
Interest Rates Held at 0.5% once again [5 May 2011]
AS Macro: Extended House Price Deflation? [5 May 2011]
A2 Micro: Innovation in Markets [4 May 2011]
Macroeconomics revision - measuring Consumer Confidence [4 May 2011]
A2 Macro: Chinese investment in the EU [3 May 2011]
AS and A2 Macro Revision: Keynesian Economics [28 Apr 2011]
A2 Micro: EU Aviation - State Aid and State Ownership [28 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Twin Deficits [22 Apr 2011]
Rise in investment could kick start recovery [18 Apr 2011]
Focus on Ireland’s Economy [12 Apr 2011]
A2 Macro: Back to Roubini - a Year On! [11 Apr 2011]
OCR F585 June 2011: Euro Area on the Rocks? [11 Apr 2011]
AS Micro: Prices for New and Second Hand Cars [9 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Double-Dip Recession [8 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Jobless Recovery [8 Apr 2011]
AS Macro Key Term: Under-employment [7 Apr 2011]
EU Economics - Portugal Reaches for Bail Out [6 Apr 2011]

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