Credit continued to grow in April but still at the same plodding, non-threatening pace as the past few years, figures from the Reserve Bank of Australia show.

The stop-start series of interest rate cuts from the RBA beginning in November 2011 has encouraged demand for credit.

But it has not been enough to prompt the kind of rapid credit growth that would boost inflationary pressures and cause rapid rises in consumer prices or unrealistically strong gains in housing or share prices.

The RBA has repeatedly said there is scope for further interest rate cuts in recent months.

Most recently, last week in the minutes on its May 7 monetary policy meeting the central bank said it had used only “some of the scope to ease policy” when it cut the cash rate to 2.75 per cent.

The credit growth figures on Friday suggests that door remains wide open.

Total credit provided by financial intermediaries – mainly banks – to the private sector grew by 0.3 per cent in April, according to the RBA’s figures.

That was right in line with the average monthly growth for the past three years.

Over the year to April credit growth was 3.1 per cent, the RBA said.

That was marginally less than the 3.5 per cent average of the prior two years.

And it was well under the 12 per cent annual average growth rate for credit for the decade and half the verage leading up to the global financial crisis that blew up in 2008.

The ultra-low interest rate settings might eventually lead to excessive borrowing and a breakout in some form of inflation, but there’s not the slightest sign of it happening at the moment.