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Date Published : Thursday, February 21, 2008
Australia's credit card spending hangover has reached a new high, it has emerged.
According to data released by the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), the total debt levels of Australians - spent on charge cards and credit cards - reached a total of $42.69 billion during the final month of 2007.
Despite the presence of evidence showing that credit card debt accumulation is now in a period of slowdown, between November and December 2007 the value of transactions increased by 5.1 per cent from $18.31 billion to $19.25 billion.
"RBA has taken a number of steps to increase the amount of information it makes available to the public, both about its policy processes and its thinking about the economy," said Malcolm Edey, assistant economic governor of the RBA.
"We now issue a monthly statement after each Board meeting, setting out the reasons for the latest decision, whether or not the interest rate is being changed [and] minutes of the board meetings are now also published."
Mr Edey made his comments on February 19th during a speech at the Committee for Economic Development of Australia.
It was also noted by the RBA that, over the period between November and December 2007, the total value of cash advances fell from $1.05 billion to $1.03 billion - a decline of 2.3 per cent.
Established in 1960 as the successor to the Commonwealth Bank of Australia and presently governed by Glenn Stevens, the organisation is Australia's central bank.
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