Bloomberg
The pain felt in South Africa’s economy in the first quarter was echoed in the banking industry. The value of new consumer credit granted in the first quarter declined more than 10 percent to 121.6 billion rand ($8.9 billion) from the previous three months, according to data compiled by the National Credit Regulator. The number of applications for loans remained little changed at 10.48 million, it said in an emailed statement.
South Africa’s economy shrank the most in nine years in the first quarter, contracting by 2.2 percent compared with the prior three months, as output slumped at mines, factories and farms. Unemployment remained near a record high during the quarter at 26.7 percent. Even so, the number of impaired accounts declined to 19.4 million from 19.8 million at the end of December out of the 79.1 million that are active, the regulator said.
Total outstanding consumer credit balances increased 1.3 percent from the previous quarter to take the gross debtors’ book to 1.78 trillion rand at the end of March, the NCR said.