South Africa's private sector credit rose by 5.10 percent from a year earlier in December of 2018, slowing from a 5.56 percent gain in a month earlier and below market consensus of 5.4 percent. It was the weakest growth in private sector credit since May. Meantime, expansion in the broadly defined M3 measure of money supply went up 5.59 percent, after a 5.69 percent rise in November and less than estimates of 5.78 percent. Private Sector Credit in South Africa averaged 13.76 percent from 1966 until 2018, reaching an all time high of 35.88 percent in July of 1981 and a record low of -2.35 percent in May of 1966.
Private Sector Credit in South Africa is expected to be 5.81 percent by the end of this quarter, according to Trading Economics global macro models and analysts expectations. Looking forward, we estimate Private Sector Credit in South Africa to stand at 4.32 in 12 months time. In the long-term, the South Africa Private Sector Credit is projected to trend around 3.11 percent in 2020, according to our econometric models.