
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SATURDAY, May 7, 1994                   TAG: 9405090143
SECTION: BUSINESS                    PAGE: A-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Short

CONSUMER DEBT IS PILING UP

U.S. consumers took on $7.425 billion more in consumer installment credit in March than they paid off, after seasonal adjustment, the Federal Reserve reported Friday.

Outstanding consumer credit expanded $3.982 billion in February, revised from the $3.543 billion rise earlier reported. The January credit increase remained unrevised at a seasonally adjusted $6.376 billion.

The March expansion was the largest since the $7.521 billion increase in credit in December and was the tenth straight month consumers took on more debt than they paid off.

Total credit outstanding at the end of March was a record $807.865 billion, compared with a revised $800.440 billion at the end of February. Total credit outstanding for February was originally reported at $800 billion.

- Knight-Ridder/Tribune

by CNB