People who are worried about their jobs and their future probably aren't going to be shopping with their credit card. Well, either that or they have nothing else left to spend so are burning credit. Consumer confidence has been increasing but we've also seen a lot of ongoing credit defaults and bankruptcies. Before either is assigned to this substantial increase we need to see more data. Reuters:
U.S. outstanding consumer installment credit shot upward in December as shoppers boosted their credit-card debt for the first time in more than two years, the Federal Reserve said Monday.
Total credit outstanding climbed $6.1 billion, nearly triple the $2.3 billion that Wall Street economists surveyed by Reuters had forecast, after an upwardly revised $2 billion increase in November.
December marked the third successive month in which consumer credit outstanding grew. It had risen by a steep $7.7 billion in October before the November and December gains.
