国际英语新闻：U.S. consumer credit falls for 11th month in December 2009

WASHINGTON, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- U.S. consumer credit dropped for the 11th month in a row in December 2009 as Americans cut their borrowing in the economic uncertainty, reported the Federal Reserve on Friday.

The Fed said that total borrowing in December dropped by 1.8 billion dollars from 2,458.6 billion dollars in November to 2,456. 8 billion dollars. It is far less than the revised 10.6 billion dollars decline for November. It also was well below the 9 billion dollars drop analysts had expected.

The previous record of seven straight months of consumer borrowing declines was set in 1943 and again in 1991.

In December, borrowing on credit cards fell by 8.5 billion dollars, while other types of loans increased by 6.8 billion dollars.

The Fed said that demand for revolving credit, the category that includes credit cards, fell 11.7 percent in December, while borrowing in the category that includes auto loans rose at an annual rate of 5.2 percent.

Some analysts say that the December data indicate that consumer spending remains weak, making it harder for the economy to keep a sustained rebound.

But others say that it may be a good news for the U.S. economy as the government is trying to rebalance the growth model from consume-oriented to export-oriented.

Economists have worried for years about the low rate of U.S. savings, which was as low as about 1 percent before the burst of the financial crisis and now at 4.8 percent in December.

However, they are now worrying that the weak consumer spending could derail the fragile recovery.

Consumer spending, which accounts for about 70 percent of the overall economic activity, remains the major drive of the U.S. economy.