Consumers Pile Up Debt At Faster Clip

Economy

U.S. consumers piled up debt at a fasterthan-expected pace in January, rebounding from a lull during holiday shopping season, the Federal Reserve said Friday.

The largest increase in credit card borrowing in 16 months paced the overall increase.

Borrowing increased $8.4 billion for the month to $1.203 trillion after rising a revised $3.8 billion in December.

Friday’s Fed report also showed that the pace of consumer credit was rising at a 8.4 percent annual rate during January. That’s up from the 3.9 percent pace of borrowing in December.

In other reports this week:

The Commerce Department reported Thursday that factory orders for both durable and nondurable goods totaled a seasonally adjusted record $323.2 billion in January, up from $315.4 billion a month earlier. The previous high was $321.9 billion in October.

New home sales rose 8.6 percent in January to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 870,000, confounding economists’ predictions of a downturn in housing.

The Conference Board said its index of leading economic indicators - intended to project economic activity over the next half year - rose 0.3 percent in January. It was the 12th straight month without a decline.