U.K. credit-card borrowing dropped for the first time in more than a decade in April and mortgage lending grew by the least since February 2002, adding to evidence of a slowdown in consumer spending in Europe’s second-biggest economy.
Net lending on credit cards fell by 40 million pounds ($73.6 million), the first drop since May 1994, the British Bankers’ Association said today in London. Net mortgage lending rose by 4.03 billion pounds after gaining 4.56 billion pounds in March.
“People are spending less and less,” said James Carrick, an economist at ABN Amro Holding NV in London. “We’ve seen weak mortgage lending for some time. Now we’re seeing weaker unsecured lending; it’s very significant.”
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