Consumers borrowed £5.3bn of mortgage debt in August

They also borrowed an additional £200m of other forms of consumer credit - such as car dealership finance and personal loans - and another £200m in credit card debt. The annual growth rate for all consumer credit remained weak, but increased slightly to -2.4% in August from -2.6% in July.

Alongside this, the effective rate on new personal loans remained below the January 2020 level at 5.87%, but was the highest since March 2020. Households’ net flow into deposit accounts increased in August to £9.1bn, though deposit interest rates fell slightly further to new historically low levels.

Large businesses repaid £2.1bn in loans from banks in August, whilst small and medium-sized businesses repaid £1bn. Private non-financial companies redeemed £1.1bn in net finance from capital markets in August, compared to a monthly average net issuance of £2.8bn since March 2020.

In addition to this, consumers borrowed £5.3bn mortgage debt in August, which comes after they made net repayments in July of £1.8bn. The £5.3bn figure is £1.4bn below the 12-month average to June 2021, when full stamp duty holiday was in effect.

Gross lending bounced back to £21.5bn in August, up from £16.6bn in July. Gross repayments fell a little to £17.6bn.

Mortgage approvals for house purchase ticked down further to 74,500 in August, down from the 75,100 in July. This is the lowest since July 2020, but remains above pre-February levels.

Alongside this, approvals for remortgaging rose to 39,700 in August. This is low when compared to the months running up to February 2020, but is the highest since March 2020.

Meanwhile, households deposited an additional £9.1bn with banks and building societies in August. This is compared to an average net flow into banks and building societies of £8.5bn between April and July 2021, and a series peak of £27.5bn in May 2020.