New figures show that the amount of money lent into the economy fell again in October.
The Central Bank says that residential mortgage lending declined for the seventh month in a row as it fell €162m last month. This means that the amount being repaid on existing mortgages was once again more than the amount given out in new mortgages.
The fall brought the annual rate of growth in mortgage lending growth down to 0.2% in October from 0.3% in September.
The Central Bank also said that average debt per credit card in issue has risen by 1.8% in the 12 months to October 2009, while the number of credit cards in use has fallen.
It added that credit card repayments have exceeded new spending for eight of the ten months so far this year.
Today's figures also reveal that total lending in the Irish economy fell by €2.3 billion last month. This compares to a fall of €4.4 billion in September. The October decline was mainly to the write-downs of loans and increased provisions for bad debts, as well as currency exchange rate movements.
