Business credit (series ended June 2019), Australia

Business credit was the Reserve Bank of Australia's measure of credit owed by Australian businesses, including financial businesses, from table D2 (series DLCACBS), seasonally adjusted. The RBA discontinued it in June 2019; it is kept here for its history from 2006 to 2019.

For more than a decade it was the standard measure of bank lending to companies in Australia, and its history covers the mining investment boom, the global financial crisis, when business credit contracted while housing credit kept growing, and the years of slow business lending that followed. That record is still useful for long comparisons of the credit cycle.

The main caution is that it has no direct continuation. The RBA ended it when it moved its credit aggregates to a new collection, and the series that continues the story, non-financial business credit, excludes lending to financial businesses, which this series included. The two cannot be joined into one line without adjustment, so comparisons across 2019 should use growth rates rather than levels. Like other level series from table D2, its history also contains breaks from reclassification and reporting changes that the RBA adjusts for in growth rates but not in levels.

Business credit (series ended June 2019) is at its highest since the series starts in January 2006. Within ten years, business credit (series ended June 2019) beats 100% of readings.

Business credit, seasonally adjusted. Discontinued by the RBA in June 2019; see au_nonfinancial_business_credit.

RBA publishes business credit (series ended June 2019) monthly in RBA table D2, in AUD and is seasonally adjusted. Code: DLCACBS. Method for business credit (series ended June 2019).