Bank deposits by households rose at their lowest annual rate since early 2019 in July, new data from the Central Bank shows.
Net household deposits actually fell slightly by €19m during the month following a large gain of €930m in June.
Nevertheless, they are still up €5.5 billion on the same month last year, although the rate of increase slowed to 3.8%, the lowest rate of growth since 2018.
A dip in overnight deposits were the main driver of the decrease in the month, with a decline of €338m recorded.
There was a small change in the composition of household deposits in July with term deposit balances increasing by €344m month-on-month and current account balances falling by €279m compared to June.
"However, this shift is in the context of overall household deposit balances of €152bn and the proportion of those balances that reside in term deposit accounts has risen from just 1.8% to 2.1% over the 12 months to July," said analysts John Cronin and Ronan Dunphy at stockbrokers Goodbody.
They added that improved deposit pricing announced by both Bank of Ireland and Permanent TSB this week will likely encourage a further shift in the deposit mix towards higher-yielding term deposits and regular savings products.
The data also shows that the annual growth in consumer lending continued to accelerate in July.
New loan drawdowns exceeded repayments by €769m in the year to the end of July, the largest rise since the third quarter of 2019.
Net lending to households stayed positive at €234m during the month, driven by consumption loans of €240m.
Loans for house purchases rose by 0.8% in July, the largest annual growth rate since the Central Bank began recording the data in 2015.
Lending for other purposes fell by €150m on a monthly basis and €476m on an annual basis.
