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Reuters

U.S. credit card use returning to pre-pandemic patterns, NY Fed report finds

U.S. consumers are spending more and once again ramping up credit card balances, reversing a shift that happened during the crisis when consumers scaled back spending and substantially paid down credit card debt, according to a report released on Tuesday by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. After rising by $17 billion in both the second and third quarters, credit card use appears to be returning to pre-pandemic patterns, the researchers said. “As pandemic relief efforts wind down, we are beginning to see the reversal of some of the credit card balance trends seen during the pandemic, namely reduced consumption and the paying down of balances,” Donghoon Lee, a research officer at the New York Fed, said in a statement.