Consumers Cut Debt For 26th Straight Month
Consumers continued to pay down credit card debts during the month of October, according to the most recent releases from the U.S. Federal Reserve Board.
The report showed credit card-related debt fell for the 26th consecutive month, dropping by nearly $5.6 billion during October.
While more Americans cut credit card debt for the month, the report found that consumers took on a greater amount of debt than was anticipated. During October, non-revolving loans - the kind generally reserved for large expenditures such as college tuition and home loans - rose for the third straight month.
"Consumer finances are progressively improving, which is a good thing, but maybe not as much as these numbers indicate," Gregory Daco, a senior economist at IHS Global Insight in Lexington, told Bloomberg.
More consumers were borrowing for education, the report said. Federal government education-related lending jumped at an unadjusted rate of nearly $32 billion, according to the Federal Reserve.
In addition, the report suggested this debt repayment has been one of the reasons consumer spending has been slow to recover since the recession.