Figures from the Central Bank show that lending to consumers and businesses continued to fall last month.
The bank said loans to households were down 3.9% compared with the same month last year. The annual fall in September was 4%. Mortgage lending was down 2.6% over 12 months, while lending for other purposes fell by 8.1%.
Lending to business was 1.7% lower compared with October last year. Falls in business lending have been smaller than those in consumer lending in recent months.
The Central Bank said loans to businesses fell by €500m during the month after a €594m rise in September. Business loans with terms of between one and five years are showing the biggest falls, according to the Central Bank, which says there has been a shift to short-term borrowing by businesses.
The Central Bank figures also show that private sector deposits - deposits from households, businesses, financial institutions and pension funds - rose during October. The annual rate of decline accelerated, however, to 11% in October from 10.5% in September.
The amount which has been borrowed by financial institutions from the Central Bank as part of the euro system rose by €500m during October to €100.9 billion. The domestic banks accounted for €71.5 billion of this, up €365m from September.
Today's Central Bank figures also showed that the annual rate of deposite decline in Ireland rose to 11% in October from 10.5% the month before as insurers and pension funds increased their withdrawals.
Consumers, companies and pension funds have been withdrawing cash from Irish-based banks for the past year but the rate of decline in household deposits eased to 4.5% year-on-year in October from a 4.7% fall the previous month.
