Households put an extra NZ$1.58 billion into New Zealand dollar bank accounts in October, mirroring the government payout to South Canterbury Finance depositors that happened over the month, figures released by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand (RBNZ) show.
The jump is the second highest monthly rise in household bank deposits since the RBNZ series began in December 1998, topped only by NZ$2.77 billion in October 2008. Annual growth in October from the same month a year ago was 4.2%, the highest for any month since the same annual growth rate was recorded in October 2009.
Meanwhile, other RBNZ figures show agriculture credit fell NZ$245 million to NZ$48.017 billion in October from September. Annual growth of 1.8% from October 2009 remained low, down from 9.7% the year before.
Business credit rose NZ$639 million in October from September to NZ$72.1 billion. The year-on-year fall in business credit narrowed from 7.6% in September to 6.6% in October, the smallest annual fall in growth rates since November 2009.
Housing credit grew by NZ$103 million, or 0.1% to NZ$170.889 billion over the month. This is the lowest growth in nominal terms since records began in 1998. The highest growth in home lending was NZ$2.205 billion in March 2007.
The annual growth rate in household credit continued to fall, with growth of 2.2% in October down from 2.5% in September and 3.3% in October a year ago.
Consumer credit grew for the second month in a row, after eight months of consecutive falls.
Consumer credit rose NZ$22 million to NZ$11.823 billion from September. Annual growth was down 0.7% in October from a year ago, the 21st consecutive month of negative annual growth. The annual fall in October was the smallest since February 2009.
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