New lending commitments across housing, personal, commercial and lease finance fell for the second month in a row in February 2011, taking the two-month dip in new business to around 12 per cent, the ABS reported yesterday.
Commercial finance fell by 6.6 per cent and personal finance by 3.5 per cent in February, while lease finance fell by 10.4 per cent.
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Including housing lending, the overall level of lending by financiers is the weakest reading in more than five years, Savanth Sebastian, economist at CommSec noted in a commentary.
The ABS said the impact of the floods in Queensland and Victoria on the lending finance data cannot be quantified.