Mortgage approvals fall again in July

The Bank said approvals fell to 33,000 in July from 35,000 in June, below market forecasts for a reading of 35,000 and the lowest since the series began in April 1993 as banks toughen up lending criteria in response to the credit crunch.

Approvals are now around a third of what they were a year ago.

The weaker than expected figures are likely to add to expectations that interest rates could fall before the end of the year as the property market slump is now being felt right across the economy.

Policymakers, however, are expected to hold borrowing costs at 5 percent on Thursday because inflation is running at more than twice the official 2 percent target and is expected to spike higher.

Mortgage lending rose by 3.231 billion pounds in July, slightly stronger than expected but a roughly of a third of the increase seen in the same month last year.

It was up 6.9 percent on the year, the weakest rate since June 1999.

Total net lending also rose 6.9 percent on the year, its weakest since January 1997.

Consumer credit rose by 1.09 billion pounds in July, above forecasts for an increase of 800 million pounds.