Cautionary tale for Christmas

In advance of the most expensive time of the year, when people go overboard on their spending at Christmas, it emerged yesterday that the level of personal borrowings is worryingly high.

The Central Bank figures issued yesterday show that the annual rate of credit growth in the economy was 14.7% in September. While only slightly ahead of that for the previous month, it nevertheless indicates an upward trend.

According to the Central Bank, the demand for residential mortgages is still driving growth and mortgage growth has been running at close to 24% for most of this year. In fact, it was at 24.6% for the month under review and is higher than at any stage since December 2000.