UK mortgage approvals steady, consumers pay down credit

British mortgage approvals for house purchase held broadly steady in August, Bank of England figures showed on Tuesday, while consumers paid down unsecured debt at the fastest rate since records began in 1993.

Mortgage approvals, a lead indicator of housing demand, slipped fractionally to 52,317 last month, broadly in line with expectations, from an upwardly revised 52,404 in July.

Mortgage lending came in slightly stronger than expected at 1.009 billion pounds, its highest since February, against a contraction of 203 million pounds in July.

However, consumer credit contracted by 309 million pounds, the biggest decline since the series began in April 1993.

Separate figures showed the M4 measure of money supply grew just 0.1 percent in August while the BoE's preferred money supply gauge — M4 excluding intermediate other financial corporations — rose by 0.2 percent.

Overall, the figures provide little conclusive evidence that the money being pumped into the economy via quantitative easing is significantly easing credit conditions for households and businesses.

The Bank of England expanded its quantitative easing scheme by 50 billion pounds to 175 billion pounds last month and is meeting with City economists on Tuesday to discuss the progress of the programme