LENDING TO IRISH households fell by 4 per cent (or €183 million) in the year to the end of September.

Lending for house purchases was down 2.5 per cent on last year, while lending for consumption and other purposes fell by 8.9 per cent.

Meanwhile, the Central Bank’s latest credit, money and banking statistics show that lending to the non-financial corporate sector fell by 1.4 per cent over the year, but picked up somewhat between August 2011 and September 2011.

The total outstanding level of borrowing from the Eurosystem to Irish credit institutions hit €100.4 billion by the end of September.

Lending to Irish credit institutions increased by €5.5 billion in September – in line with the bailout agreement – and IFSC banks accounted for almost nine-tenths of that increase.

At the same time, the institutions’ holdings of debt and equity shares issued by Irish private sector securities dropped by over €1.9bn. The Central bank says that the growth on these holdings remains strong on an annual basis at 18.2 per cent, and that the pace of growth in this area has eased since NAMA finished its process of transferring loans in exchange for bonds.

Deposits from households in Ireland fell by 4.7 per cent lower on an annual basis in September, having dropped 5.4 per cent in the year ending August 2011.