5671.0 - Lending Finance, Australia, Dec 2004

ARCHIVED ISSUE Released at 11:30 AM (CANBERRA TIME) 15/02/2005

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Main Features
About this Release

DECEMBER KEY FIGURES

		Nov 2004	Dec 2004	Nov 2004 to Dec 2004
		$m	$m	% change

TREND ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	10,662	10,808	1.4
	Personal finance	6,317	6,337	0.3
	Commercial finance	26,447	26,778	1.3
	Lease finance	547	551	0.8
SEASONALLY ADJUSTED ESTIMATES
	Housing finance for owner occupation	10,719	11,018	2.8
	Personal finance	6,241	6,294	0.9
	Commercial finance	25,841	25,944	0.4
	Lease finance	543	522	-3.8

Personal finance
Graph: Personal finance

Commercial finance
Graph: Commercial finance

DECEMBER KEY POINTS

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

The total value of owner-occupied housing commitments excluding alterations and additions increased by 2.8% (seasonally adjusted) in December 2004. The trend series increased by 1.4%.

PERSONAL FINANCE

The seasonally adjusted series for total personal finance commitments rose by 0.9% in December 2004. Fixed lending decreased by 4.6% while revolving credit commitments increased by 5.8%.
The total personal finance trend series increased by 0.3% in December 2004, the third consecutive increase after ten monthly decreases.

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

The total commercial finance series (seasonally adjusted) rose by 0.4% in December 2004. Fixed lending increased by 4.6% while revolving credit decreased by 7.4%.
The purchase of dwellings by individuals for rent or resale (seasonally adjusted) series rose by 5.4% in December 2004, the second consecutive increase after a reported decrease of 7.9% in October.
The trend series for total commercial finance increased by 1.3% in December 2004. The fixed lending rose by 2.7% and revolving credit trend series fell by 1.4%.

LEASE FINANCE

Lease finance (seasonally adjusted) decreased by 3.8% in December 2004.
The lease finance trend rose by 0.8% in December 2004, the seventh consecutive monthly increase.

NOTES

EXPECTED CHANGES

Introduction of New Accounting Standards

The introduction of new accounting standards for businesses and government will occur over the period from 1 January 2005 to 31 December 2006. These standards may have impacts on data reported to the ABS. The changes will be introduced by business and government in accordance with their external reporting cycles, and thus there is no single cutover date. The ABS is preparing an information paper expected for publication by end of February which discusses the changes and the potential impacts on ABS statistics.

The series published in this publication are compiled in accordance with statistical standards, not accounting standards. In principle, therefore, there should be no breaks in series as a result the introduction of new accounting standards. In practice, the ABS expects that some data reported will change, and additional data quality assurance measures have been introduced to identify such cases. When a significant change is identified, the ABS will discuss the nature of the change with the data providers and where necessary, make adjustments on the basis of advice received. Where such adjustments are made, their nature and size will be noted on page 2 "changes this issue".

For this release there were no identified impacts or adjustments made.

Expected revisions

Following consultation with a number of data providers, revisions to a number of series in this publication have been advised to the ABS. We intend to incorporate these revisions into published statistics next month. These revisions will affect estimates of the levels of housing finance, but are unlikely to cause significant changes to percentage movements for key series.

INQUIRIES

For further information about these and related statistics, contact the National Information and Referral Service on 1300 135 070 or Vincent Nguyen on Canberra (02) 6252 6398.

SUMMARY OF FINDINGS

HOUSING FINANCE FOR OWNER OCCUPATION

The total value of commitments excluding alterations and additions (seasonally adjusted) increased by 2.8% in December 2004. The trend series increased by 1.4%.

For further information, please refer to Housing Finance, Australia (cat. no. 5609.0).

PERSONAL FINANCE

In seasonally adjusted terms, total personal finance increased to $6,294 million (up 0.9%) in December 2004. Revolving credit commitments increased by 5.8% while fixed lending decreased by 4.6%. The trend series increased by 0.3%.

In original terms, revolving credit commitments increased by 1.6% in December 2004. Both secured and unsecured revolving credit increased by 1.6%.

In original terms, fixed lending commitments decreased by 8.2% (down $252m) in December 2004. This was due mainly to decreases in total motor vehicles (down 15.2%) and other fixed lending (down 12.9%).

COMMERCIAL FINANCE

Total commercial finance series (seasonally adjusted) increased to $25,944 million (up 0.4%) in December 2004. Fixed lending increased by 4.6% while revolving credit decreased by 7.4%. The trend series increased by 1.3%.

In original terms, fixed lending commitments increased by 14.4%. Large increases were recorded in other fixed lending (up 23.4%), refinancing (up 57.6%) and purchase of real property (up 5.1%). Wholesale finance decreased by 18.5%.

The seasonally adjusted purchase of dwellings for rent or resale by individuals series increased to $4,790 million (up 5.4%) in December 2004. The trend series increased by 2.0% in December 2004, the fourth consecutive monthly increase after ten monthly decreases.

PURCHASE OF DWELLINGS BY INDIVIDUALS FOR RENT OR RESALE
Graph: Purchase of dwellings by individuals for rent or resale

LEASE FINANCE

Total lease finance series (seasonally adjusted) decreased to $522 million (down 3.8%) in December 2004. The lease finance trend series grew by 0.8% in December 2004, the seventh consecutive monthly increase.

ADDITIONAL TABLES ON AUSSTATS

TABLES AVAILABLE ON AUSSTATS

Additional tables are available from the AusStats service on <https://www.abs.gov.au> by selecting Time Series Spreadsheets and then Finance.

Tables available are:

longer time series of tables in this publication
the following tables