UK global credit growth to pick up to 4% in 2013

The global real lending activities will recover this year, led by the pick-up in developed countries, said Fitch Ratings in its latest Macro-Prudential Risk Monitor report Friday. The global credit growth is set to pick up to four percent this year, after having slowed to 2.5 percent in 2012, said the London-based credit rating company. Though the real credit growth in developed countries will be merely one percent in 2013, it marks the substantial improvement compared to its one percent contraction last year, thus ending the two consecutive years of negative growth, forecasts Fitch. In Asia, the fastest growing region, however, the real credit growth will slow sharply this year, particularly in Southeast Asian countries, said Fitch. Asian real credit growth was more than 10 percent in 2012. Credit growth in Latin America is expected to slow much less, therefore the region would become the fastest growing region in 2013. Middle East and Africa region, by contrast, is forecast to see a slight pick-up in credit growth to an average pace of 4-5 percent, said Fitch. In 2012, the ratio of credit to GDP for developed countries in aggregate was stable at 163 percent, while the ratio of emerging markets continued to trend gradually higher, reaching 48 percent, data also showed. "In the developed world, despite substantial falls in some crisis countries, there is no sign of a generally falling trend in credit/GDP," added Fitch.