U.S. consumer debt rose in January by the least infour months on a sharp slowdown in use of revolving products suchas credit cards, Federal Reserve data showed Wednesday.
Total credit rose $13.9b m/m (est. $17.7b gain) and follows arevised $19.2b Dec. gain (prev. $18.4b) Revolving creditoutstanding rose $701m, least since Feb. 2015, after a $6.1b Dec.increase Non-revolving debt outstanding climbed $13.2b aftera $13.1b riseKey Takeaways
The slow growth in revolving debt, in line with sluggish householdspending figures reported for January, indicates consumers may havebeen reluctant to increase credit-card balances following robustoutlays in the fourth quarter. Gains in overall consumer creditcooled for a second month.

Even so, a strong jobs market and the tax cuts enacted inDecember are likely to support household spending in the first halfof the year. The Fed's consumer credit report doesn't track debtsecured by real estate, such as home equity lines of credit andhome mortgages.
Lending by the federal government, which is mainly for studentloans, increased by $26.3 billion in January, before seasonaladjustment.

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