Consumer borrowing up by $20.4B in November

1/10/2012

WASHINGTON — Americans are confident enough in the economy to return to a time-honored tradition: a little extra debt.

Consumer borrowing surged in November by $20.4 billion, the Federal Reserve said Monday. It was the third-straight rise and the largest monthly gain in a decade.

The jump in borrowing was largely because people took out more loans to buy cars and swiped their credit cards frequently to purchase holiday gifts.

In November, total consumer borrowing rose to a seasonally adjusted $2.48 trillion. That’s nearly at prerecession levels and up from a postrecession low point of $2.39 trillion reached in September, 2010.