The latest figures from the Central Bank show that the amount of money being lent in the economy continued to fall in February, with lending to businesses again falling.
The Central Bank said that lending for home mortgages fell by €156m in the month. This means that the amount being re-paid on existing mortgages was more than the amount given out in new mortgages. There was an annual drop of 0.9% in mortgage lending.
Total lending in the economy fell by €1.3 billion during February, bringing the annual rate of decline to 7.3%. The Central Bank has previously said that falls last year were inked to banks' writing down the value of bad loans, but it says lower lending in the first two months of this year was due to an underlying fall in lending.
The figures also show that the pace of decline in lending to businesses has been accelerating, falling at an annual rate of 3.7% in February after a 3% drop in January.
The Central Bank said repayments on credit cards in February were around €26m higher than new spending on cards. Total lending to households has fallen by 2.4% over the past 12 months.
The Central Bank said the transfer of loans to NAMA, and the expected write-downs in value linked to these, would have a significant effect on the credit statistics from April onwards.
