Ethel Hazelhurst reports on Business Report :

“Evidence of slowing consumption continues to mount. The Reserve Bank said on Friday that growth in bank credit to the private sector had slowed to 11.85 percent over the 12 months to January2009, below expectations of about 12 percent.

The figure for December has been revised down to 13.6 percent from 14.04 percent.

One of the hardest hit categories is credit cards. Kevin Lings, an economist at Stanlib, said credit card growth had eased to only 2.6 percent year-on-year. The figure was negative if the impact of inflation was eliminated.

The January slump is partly due to technical factors. Changes in reporting requirements in January 2008 year artificially boosted credit growth that month and the impact fell out of the figures only in January 2009.

However, the falling trend reflects a fundamental change in the economy, as the impact of the global credit crisis and the slowdown in world economic activity hits home.”

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