South Africa’s credit growth in December slows to 6.14% year-on-year
JOHANNESBURG – Growth in private sector credit in South Africa in December slowed to 6.14% year-on-year from 6.60% in the previous month, central bank data showed on Thursday.
Expansion in the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply also slowed, to 6.19% in December from 7.35% in November.
Siphamandla Mkhwanazi, senior economist at FNB, said, “While households’ appetite for credit remains relatively intact, uptake of consumption credit (unsecured credit) continues to decelerate and registered 9.7% y/y from 10.8% in the previous month. This is the lowest print since the May 2019 elections. We attribute this to consumers’ worsening credit profile amid a challenging macroeconomic environment that has seen lenders turning more risk averse. Nevertheless, growth in unsecured credit uptake remains relatively strong, with general loans and credit card advances registering 11.2% y/y and 9.5% y/y respectively in December (from 11% and 12.3% in November).”
Source: iol.co.za