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Australian private sector credit growth slowed a touch in April to 0.4 percent m/m. Monthly growth in all categories eased from the prior month, with the exception of owner-occupied housing which remained at 0.6 percent m/m. Annual growth in investor housing credit slowed to 2.3 percent and is set to slow further over coming months given the big drop in investor finance commitments in March.
Total private sector credit grew 0.4 percent m/m in April, slowing a touch on March’s growth of 0.5 percent m/m, which in turn was a pick-up from the 0.3/0.4 percent m/m growth seen since August last year. Annual growth remained at 5.1 percent y/y.
Housing sector credit rose 0.4 percent m/m, its slowest pace since December. This lowered the year-on-year growth rate to 6.0 percent (from 6.1 percent) which is the slowest since March 2014. Within the housing segment, owner-occupied credit growth remained at 0.6 percent m/m where it has been for most of the past eight months. Investor credit growth slowed to 0.1 percent m/m, with annual growth slowing to 2.3 percent y/y.
This is the slowest annual pace for investor housing since September 2016. The 9 percent m/m drop in the value of investor housing finance commitments in March suggests that investor credit growth will slow sharply in coming months, despite the removal of APRA’s 10 percent cap on loan growth and the easing of interest rates for many types of investor loans. The atmospherics around bank lending appears to be the driver of this.
Business sector credit slowed to 0.5 percent m/m after the downwardly revised gain of 0.7 percent m/m in March. Annual business credit growth still accelerated to 4.3 percent y/y, however. Personal credit fell 0.3 percent m/m, its biggest monthly decline since October 2015. It is down 1.2 percent over the year, its steepest decline mid-2012.
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