The debts of households continue to fall.
The borrowings of households are now at their lowest level since 2006, the Central Bank said.
New figures show that households in this country fell from being the third most indebted in the European Union to the fourth.
The borrowings owed work out at just over €31,000 per head, a calculation that includes children.
The figures show Irish household debt fell by €1.1bn in the first three months of the year.
The drop in Ireland’s ranking in the debt stakes in the first three months of this year was largely due to people paying off mortgages and other loans, and increases in disposable income.
Borrowings of households are now at their lowest level since the first quarter of 2006, before the housing and developer boom and bust.
Overall debts of all households in this country fell by €1.1bn to €148.5bn in the first quarter of the year, according to the Central Bank.
This works out on average at €31,216 per head of the population.
Statisticians at the Central Bank said the fall in the nets of households was due to debt repayments of €300, debt write-downs/write-offs of €300m and €500m of negative reclassifications.
This is thought to mean that debts that were classified as households debts have been moved by banks to be classified as company debt, particularly in the case of business owners.
The debts of citizens have fall now for the previous 30 quarters.
Article Source: http://tinyurl.com/kbwqb42
