The ABS reported that In November 2023, new loan commitments (seasonally adjusted): rose 1.0% for housing, fell 5.6% for personal fixed term loans, fell 4.8% for business construction (a typically volatile series) and rose 0.6% in trend terms and fell 6.4% for business purchase of property (a typically volatile series) but was flat in trend terms. So housing credit is still relatively strong despite higher interest rates, and potentially signalling that the RBA will need to dampen demand further in its inflation battle.
Also on Friday, the rather meaningless Monthly Household Spending Indicators was published by the ABS. As these are based on current prices, they are not adjusted for the impacts of inflation. The indicator is produced using aggregated and de-identified card and bank transactions from banking and financial institutions. They reported that Household spending increased 3.1% through the year on a current price, calendar adjusted basis.
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