U.S. Consumer Borrowing Up $17.1-Billion in May

Americans stepped up their borrowing in May, helped by the largest monthly gain in credit card debt in more than four years. But overall credit card use is still well below where it was just before the Great Recession began.

The Federal Reserve says consumer borrowing rose $17.1 billion in May from April.

A category that includes credit card debt increase $8 billion.

The brought the level for that measure to $870 billion, below the more than $1 trillion in debt that Americans took on before and shortly after the recession began.

Consumers cut back sharply on their credit card borrowing during the recession and have only been posting modest gains over the past year.