Official figures show that the financial position of Irish households worsened last year for the first time since 2002.
The Central Statistics Office calculated that while there was a small rise in the value of financial assets held by households, this was more than wiped out by a big increase in liabilities, mainly loans.
Assets were €311.8 billion, liabilities €197.3 billion, giving a net figure of €114.5 billion for households. This was down from €131.9 billion in 2006. Property and other non-financial assets are not measured in these statistics.
A breakdown of households' assets showed the percentage held in cash and deposits increased slightly to 33%, but the figure for pension funds and insurance policies dropped from 43% in 2006 to 41%, partly linked to the fall in share prices on stock markets.
The total financial assets in the economy grew by just over 10% to €3,833 billion in 2007. As fixed assets such as property are not included, other sectors apart from households usually show negative balances, with liabilities outweighing assets.
The general Government sector's net assets were -€600m last year, an improvement on the -€3 billion in 2006, helped by a current surplus and increase in the size of the National Pensions Reserve Fund. For financial corporations, net assets were -€16.8 billion.
