Low interest rates are continuing to spur growth in lending, but that growth remains slow and patchy.
Credit to the private sector rose by 0.5 per cent in April, lifting the annual growth rate to 4.6 per cent.
That's the fastest growth rate since the global crisis wreaked havoc on the financial system in 2008 and 2009, but slow nonetheless.
A year ago, the annual growth rate was just 3.1 per cent.
And the pace is still picking up, slowly but surely, the figures from the RBA on Friday showed.
In the six months to April, growth in credit accelerated to an annualised rate of 5.1 per cent, from 4.0 per cent in the six months before that.
The fastest-rising category of credit is investor housing, up by 0.8 per cent in April and 8.1 per cent through the year, with the latest six months at an even faster pace of 9.2 per cent.
Despite the well-known scarcity of people identifying themselves as first-home buyers, credit to home-buyers (as opposed to investors) is also gaining pace.
Finance for these intending owner-occupiers was up by 0.5 per cent in the month and by 5.0 per cent through the year, compared with 4.0 per cent for the previous year.
And it is also accelerating, rising at a faster 5.6 per cent rate over the most recent six months.
But the other two categories identified in the RBA's figures are nowhere near as strong.
Growth in personal credit other than housing was unchanged in April and up by an inconsequential 0.5 per cent from a year earlier.
And credit to businesses, even after posting small rises for five consecutive months - including a 0.3 per cent increase in April - has still managed annual growth of just 2.7 per cent, marginally less than the official inflation rate of 2.9 per cent.
The RBA's board meets next week and is widely expected to keep the cash rate at 2.5 per cent, where it's been since being cut in August last year.
The slump in consumer confidence since the budget earlier this month confirmed the chance of an interest rate rise this month is approximately zero.
The figures showing credit's painfully slow acceleration from a still-subdued rate of increase, along with notable weakness in personal and business finance, just confirmed that.
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