BUSINESS

IRELAND'S DEBT ONE TRILLION SAYS CENTRAL BANK

By Martha Gberevbie

The Irish Government and Government-funded financial institutions were in debt to the tune of 1 trillion, at the end of February 2010, according to Central Bank statistics released today.

Private-sector credit, excluding lending to non-bank IFSC (International Financial Services Centre) companies decreased by €1.3 billion in February 2010.

The decline in credit to non-financial corporations (NFCs) continued, as NFC credit fell by 3.7 per cent in the year ending February 2010. This follows declines of 3 per and 1.9 per cent in the last two months respectively.

PSC(Public Sector Credit) declined by 0.3 per cent over the month of February excluding valuation effects. The remaining PSC on credit institutions’ balance sheets declined by approximately €1.3 billion during February.

Meanwhile, residential and securitised mortgages declined by €156 million in February. Unpaid mortgages amounted to €147.2 billion at the end of February 2010. The annual mortgage lending rate of change fell to minus 0.9 per cent.

The statistics also disclosed that people are choosing to clear their credit card debts over incurring new debts. Personal credit card repayments were approximately €26 million higher than new spending on credit cards during February.

The procurement of loans by the National Asset Management Agency (NAMA) is expected to have a significant effect on future data published by the Central Bank and will begin to be reflected in statistics for the month of April 2010.



INCREASE IN CAR SALES



By Kate Roche

The latest figures from the Central Statistics Office (CSO) revealed that retail sales for February were up three per cent from last year due to an increase in motor sales. Total retail sales entered positive territory for the first time since January 2008.

Although there was an overall increase in retail sales, if the effect of 30 per cent annual growth in motor trade sales is excluded, “core” retail sales are currently 3.1 per cent lower than in February 2009.

Meanwhile, there was a recovery in sales in sectors linked to the housing market, with a 14.9 per cent monthly rise in sales of furniture and lighting, bringing the annual rate of growth in this category to 4.7 per cent.