Consumers Borrow Less

Washington- The Federal Reserve said Tuesday that Cunsumers borrowing dropped at an annual rate of $ 7.48 billion in February , or 3.5 percent , from January .
Wall street economists expected borrowing to slide by only $ 1 billion , according to a survey by Thomas Reuters .

The decline was led by a record drop in borrowing on credit and charge cards , which fell at an annual rate of $ 7.8 billion , or 9.7 percent .
That is the sharpest drop in dollar terms since federal records began in 1968 , and the steepest pecent fall since 1978 .

wire reports