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BoE: Fall in lending continues
1 May 2008 10:30
Lending declined again in March, according to new figures from the Bank of England (BoE), as the supply of mortgages to both homebuyers and remortgagers waned.
Total approvals fell by 10.7 per cent to £24 billion in March, which was also 11.1 per cent below the previous six month average, while approval volumes were down by 9.5 per cent from both February and the mean for the past half year to 243,000.
Lending to homebuyers also dropped by 10.4 per cent to £9.3 billion in March, down by 19.8 per cent on the recent six month average, with the number of mortgages granted down by 11.1 per cent from February to 64,000.
Meanwhile, lending to remortgagers dipped by 3.5 per cent to £13.6 billion, although this was actually 3.8 per cent above the previous six month average, yet lending was also down by 10.1 per cent in volume terms from February at 98,000.
Commenting on this data, the Council of Mortgage Lenders warned that despite the BoE's recent injection of liquidity into the banking sector, this would not be reflected in mortgage products for several months yet and lending would continue to fall until then.
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