Private sector lending falls 6%

TOTAL private sector lending fell by 6% last year, nearly half of which was made up of declines in personal loan dealings.

Latest Central Bank private sector credit (PSC) data, published yesterday, showed that personal lending fell by 2.8% last year.Included in this was a €1 billion year-on-year fall in non-mortgage related lending.

Lending to personal sector – including residential mortgages – fell by €1.3bn in the final three months of last year, alone. Exclusively, mortgage lending was down €315m more at the end of the year than it was at the end of the third quarter of last year.