New figures show the amount of money lent into the economy fell again in October.
The Central Bank said 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 increase in mortgage lending growth to 0.2% in October, down 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.
