According to the report from the Bank of England, british consumer borrowing fell at its fastest pace in January since May last year as the country went back into a coronavirus lockdown.

Unsecured lending to consumers fell by 2.4 billion pounds, the biggest fall since last May’s 4.6 billion-pound drop. That took the year-on-year fall to 8.9%, the biggest decline since monthly records began in 1994.

Net mortgage borrowing remained robust at £5.2 billion in January. There were 99,000 mortgage approvals for house purchase in January, in line with the average of 100,000 since October 2020. Effective interest rates on new mortgage borrowing fell to 1.85%.

Private non-financial companies borrowed £4.3 billion from capital markets in January. Net bank borrowing by small and medium sized businesses remained at £0.5 billion in January, whilst large businesses made net repayments of £1.5 billion.

Households deposited an additional £18.5 billion in January. Deposit interest rates remained at historically low levels.