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The amount of commercial finance provided by lenders dropped from $41.7 billion in April 2017 to $41.4 billion in May 2017, figures from ABS have shown.
According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics' Lending Finance data for Australia in May 2017, the money provided to individuals and corporations for business or investment purposes (including for the construction or purchase of dwellings for rental or resale), marked a 0.8 per cent drop month-on-month in trend terms, or a 6.4 per cent drop in seasonally-adjusted figures.
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The seasonally-adjusted figure follows on from a fall of 6.1 per cent in April 2017, potentially showing the effects of macroprudential measures to cool investor lending.
Fixed lending commitments fell 0.9 per cent and revolving credit commitments fell 0.3 per cent.
Revolving credit commitments fell 12.5 per cent (following a fall of 24 per cent in the month prior) and fixed lending commitments fell 4.9 per cent (following a fall of 0.3 per cent in the previous month).
Looking deeper into the figures, construction finance in May 2017 dropped back to $1.6 billion, down from $2.03 billion in April 2017.
The amount of finance provided for the purchase of plant and equipment rose rapidly over the month from $2.3 billion in April to $3.1 in May. This figure is also up on the prior comparative period, when finance for this purpose was around $3.07 billion.
The amount of finance provided for real property rose from $12.2 billion in April to $15.4 billion in May. This is also markedly up from May 2016, when finance provided for real property totalled $13.3 billion.
[Related: Commercial clients want banks to leave them alone: brokers]
