The big news story today is the Reserve Bank board meeting, the first for 2011 and the non-decision on interest rates.
The board meeting follows the release of credit data by the RBA for December and 2010 which showed that lending was up on 2009.
Housing had the only really solid figures for the year.
Lending to business was again weak, but overall stronger as 2010 went on and was considerably stronger than in 2009.
But even the growth in housing loans slowed over 2010 to the point where the 7.1% growth in owner-occupied loans in the year to December was the lowest annual rate recorded by the RBA.
The RBA said total credit provided to the private sector by financial intermediaries rose by 0.2% in December after rising by 0.3% over November.
Over the year to December, total credit rose by 3.4%, compared with the 1.6% rise in 2009 and the 6.8% jump in 2008 (which mostly came in the first nine months of that year).
Housing credit was steady in December, rising half a per cent from November and over the year to December, it was up 7.3%.
That was down from the 8.2% in 2009 and the 7.6% rate in 2008.
Owner-occupied housing loans rose 0.6% in the month and 7.1% for the year, down from the stimulus boosted 10% rate in 2009.
Investor home loans were up 0.4% in the month and 7.9% for the year and just 4.1% in 2009.
The RBA said other personal credit fell by 0.4% in December, after being up half a per cent in November.
In the year to December, other personal credit increased by 1.2%, much stronger than the fall of 0.4% in 2009 and the 4.9% slump in 2008.
Lending to business was again down in December, falling 0.3%, after the dip of 0.1% in November.
Over the year to December, business credit fell 2.3%, much better than the 7.1% fall in the year to December, but not as good as the 8% rise in 2008 (which was off the back of strong lending activity earlier in the year).
