South Africa Credit to the Private Non-Financial Sector (Local Currency)

## What this measures

All credit to households and non-financial companies in South Africa, from banks, other lenders and bond markets, at market value, in billions of South Africa's currency, quarterly, adjusted for breaks in the series. Bank for International Settlements total credit statistics.

## Why it matters

Credit that grows much faster than the economy for years is the best single warning of a banking crisis; credit that shrinks relative to GDP means deleveraging.

## How to read it

Read growth, not the level: the level is in local currency. credit.private_index_2015.zaf sets it against GDP growth since 2015; bis.private_credit_pct_gdp shows the ratio for some countries.

## What it does not say

It does not split households from companies, or domestic from foreign lenders. Values in high-inflation currencies grow fast in nominal terms.

## Source

Bank for International Settlements, Credit to the non-financial sector, series `WS_TC/Q.ZA.P.A.M.XDC.A` (stats.bis.org). Palanor reads the full series every day. Source: BIS. Used under the BIS terms for statistics: reuse is unrestricted with the BIS cited as the source, and the statistics carry no additional charge in Palanor.