Britons turn cautious with credit as Covid-19 cases mounted 

British consumers curbed their borrowing in July in the face of rising Covid-19 cases that forced many more people to self-isolate, and homeowners made a rare net repayment on their mortgages, Bank of England data showed.

Consumer borrowing showed the weakest performance since February, when Britain was in the grip of a third coronavirus lockdown, showing a 42 million-pound ($57.8 million) net repayment of credit.

The fall compared with a median forecast for an increase of 441 million pounds in a Reuters poll of economists.

There have been other signs that Britain’s economic bounce-back slowed in July, when the spread of the Delta variant of the coronavirus led to a surge in people who had contact with someone who tested positive being required to self-isolate. Those rules have since been relaxed.

Data released earlier this month showed caution on the part of shoppers in July. A separate survey last week pointed a rebound in retail sales in August.

Samuel Tombs, an economist at Pantheon Macroeconomics, said consumers were likely to remain in cautious mode.

“With Covid-19 cases likely to pick-up again over the coming months, we continue to doubt that households will draw on their excess savings or borrow significant sums to finance expenditure over the next six months,” he said.