Fed: Consumer credit increased in April

Consumer credit lines increased in April at a steady rate. Data released by The Federal Reserve recently showed that overall credit spiked by 4.7 percent during April, a more significant increase than the 3.6 percent growth recorded in March.

One of the positive developments for financial institutions was that revolving credit lines increased by $682.3 million in April after a $906.4 million decline in the previous month, according to Reuters. Overall, America's outstanding consumer credit currently sits at $2.92 trillion.

Although the numbers showed improvement on March's credit total, the source noted that the rate of growth could be greater. The source suggested that the increase in credit may indicate American consumers are attempting to reduce their personal debt.

Experts surveyed by Reuters expected that total increase in credit to be $12 billion. However, with an increase of $11.1 billion, the modest growth was less than predicted, which most likely won't provide short term lending companies with confidence regarding consumer borrowing habits.

However, other economic trends - such as job growth - are improving, which shows the economy is slowly recovering. Data from the Department of Labor showed that 175,000 jobs were created in May.