Thursday March 27, 10:34 AM
Mortgage approvals pick up
LONDON (ShareCast) - The number of mortgage approvals granted by Britain's high street banks grew last month, though the figure was still way down on the level seen in February of last year. The British Bankers' Association (BBA) said
the number of mortgages approved by its members for house purchases rose to 43,870 in February from January's level of 43,732. However, on a year-on-year comparison approvals were down by a third.Approvals for re-mortgaging were up 5.5% from a year earlier at 72,193. The value of house purchase loans eased to £7bn in February from £7.1bn in January, and was down 30% on the February 2006 level. Credit card spending dipped slightly to £7.3bn from £7.4bn in January, while repayments rose to £7.7bn from January's £7.6bn. The number of purchases made with credit cards rose to 105.4m from 104.1m. "Despite the relative pick-up in February's reported retail sales, consumer credit, and cards in particular, continue to be subdued," said the BBA's statistics director David Dooks.
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