Bank of England Money and Credit Report – January 2025
Overview
These monthly statistics on the amount of, and interest rates on, borrowing and deposits by households and businesses are used by the Bank’s policy committees to understand economic trends and developments in the UK banking system.
Key points:
- Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals rose by £0.9 billion, to £4.2 billion in January.
- Net mortgage approvals for house purchases decreased by 300 to 66,200 in January, compared to an increase of 400 in December. Approvals for remortgaging increased by 2,200 to 32,900, after falling for the previous two months.
- Net consumer credit borrowing by individuals was £1.7 billion in January, up from £1.1 billion in the previous month. Within this, net borrowing through credit cards increased to £1.1 billion from £0.4 billion, and was the highest increase since November 2023.
- During January, private non-financial corporations (PNFCs) repaid, on net, £2.4 billion of finance, compared to repayments of £2.9 billion in December.
- The net flow of sterling money (known as M4ex) was £25.7 billion in January, compared to £10.5 billion in December. This was mostly driven by non-intermediate other financial corporations’ (NIOFCs’) holdings of money, which increased by £10.7 billion.
- The net flow of sterling net lending to private sector companies and households (M4Lex) was £7.2 billion in January, compared to £5.0 billion in the previous month. Households accounted for £4.6 billion of the January flow.
Lending to and deposits from individuals
Mortgage lending:
Net borrowing of mortgage debt by individuals increased by £0.9 billion to £4.2 billion in January, following an increase in net borrowing of £1.1 billion in December. The annual growth rate for net mortgage lending rose to 1.8% in January from 1.5% in December, continuing the upward trend observed since April 2024. Gross lending was little changed in January at £21.3 billion, while gross repayments decreased to £16.3 billion, from £18.5 billion in December.
Net mortgage approvals (that is, approvals net of cancellations) for house purchases, which is an indicator of future borrowing, decreased by 300 to 66,200 in January, following an increase of 400 in December. Approvals for remortgaging (which only capture remortgaging with a different lender) increased by 2,200 to 32,900 in January, after falling over the previous two months.
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