UK private lending is booming, helping the Pound

As the coronavirus pandemic eases, credit activity in the UK is rising.

A fresh set of statistics could be another factor for the Bank of England’s decision to slow QE as early as this week, taking the first step towards normalisation.

Data released this morning showed an increase in net lending to individuals by £11.3bn for March. This is more than double the increase to February (5.3bn) and the average monthly figure of the last six years (4.7bn).

The March values were the highest since the end of 2003, returning lending to the old normal seen during the housing boom of the 2000s.

In the short term, this is a strong positive signal of economic activity.
This news helped the Pound swim against the tide today, with the dollar strengthening against most of its peers.

But this may not be the end of the play as the Bank of England, which monitors and publishes the data, will announce its monetary policy decision this Thursday with this credit surge in mind. Will the BoE start to cool the credit market or allow it to boom further?

The FxPro Analyst Team