Central Bank reports further increase in personal debt
28/02/2005 - 11:44:54Irish people are continuing to borrow heavily and are now in debt to the tune of more than €200bn, according to figures released today by the Central Bank.
The bank said an additional €3.3bn was borrowed by Irish residents in January.
This pushed total debt up to €202.9bn, an increase of 26.6% over the past 12 months.
The Central Bank said residential mortgages accounted for €1bn of the extra money borrowed last month, but the majority of the increase was made up of non-mortgage credit like personal loans and overdrafts.
It said non-mortgage credit had been increasing steadily over the past five months, while mortgage lending had been in decline since last July.
