Figures from the Central Bank show that the annual rate of credit growth in the economy hit 30% in June for the first time in more than six years.
Private sector credit growth was 30.3%, compared with an annual rate of 29.8% in May. Non-mortgage credit grew at a faster rate than mortgage lending, rising to 32.6% from 29.7% in May. This figure was the highest since March 2000.
Mortgage lending growth eased only slightly to 29.1% from 29.5% in May. When recent reclassifications of term loans into residential mortgages are stripped out, the underlying growth rate dropped from 27.8% to 27.4%.
But the monthly increase in mortgage lending, at €2.3 billion, was the highest so far this year, and brought total outstanding residential mortgages to €110.8 billion.
