Oct 2006 - Oct 2009 Source: Irish Central Bank

The Irish Central Bank said today that residential mortgages (including securitised mortgages) fell by €162 million during October - - the seventh straight monthly fall. Mortgages outstanding at the end of October were €147.8 billion. The annual rate of change in mortgage lending is now down to just 0.2 per cent. Non-housing related household credit continued to decline during the month, and was approximately 18 per cent lower on an annual basis in October.

The Bank said outstanding indebtedness on personal credit cards remained unchanged on a year-to-year basis in October although average debt per personal card in issue had increased by 1.8 per cent at year end-October 2009 while the number of personal credit cards in use declined. Credit card indebtedness decreased slightly during the month, however. Repayments have exceeded new spending for eight of the ten months so far in 2009. The amount of interest bearing credit card debt as a proportion of total credit card debt remained relatively stable over the year.

The Central Bank said valuation effects due to writedowns of existing loans and increased provisions for bad debts contributed most to a reduction of 1.2 per cent in credit outstanding to non-financial corporations (NFCs) during the month.

Adjusting for valuation effects, approximately one-tenth of this decline can be attributed to a reduction in the underlying stock of credit to NFCs, as a result of repayments exceeding drawdowns during the month. Valuation effects accounted for approximately 75 per cent of the annual decline in headline NFC in October of 9 per cent.

Headline private sector credit (PSC) declined by 3.7 per cent, or €13.5 billion in the year ending October 2009. Approximately 90 per cent this annual decline is a result of valuation effects, such as write-downs of loans and increased bad-debt provisions given broader economic conditions, and exchange rate effects as the euro has strengthened in recent months, particularly against the US dollar. The balance, which is marginal in overall terms, reflects a decline in the underlying stock of credit on a year-to-year basis in October.

Oct 2006 - Oct 2009 Source: Irish Central Bank