UK mortgage approvals hit highest since April 2008 in June

British mortgage approvals for house purchase rose to their highest level in more than a year in June but total consumer lending rose by the smallest amount on record, official data showed on Wednesday.

The Bank of England said mortgage approvals numbered 47,584 in June, up from 44,169 in May and just above analysts' forecasts of 47,000. That was the highest since April 2008 and in line with other surveys pointing to a bottoming out in the housing market.

However, the Bank of England's preferred gauge of money supply, M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations, fell 0.6 percent on the month when many analysts would have expected quantitative easing to have delivered a boost.