Credit card indebtedness is increasing at its fastest rate in four years, but growth in outstanding mortgage balances has fallen to its lowest level since November 2002, the Central Bank said yesterday.

Outstanding balances owed on credit cards rose by almost 20 per cent to €2,698 million in March, a month in which indebtedness on plastic cards usually declines.

Consumers owed a total of €2,572 million on their cards at the end of March, compared with outstanding balances of €2,149 million in March 2006. Business credit cards made up the rest of the unpaid debt.

Consumers spent a total of €968 million on their credit cards in March, compared with new spending of €853 million in the same month last year.

However, signs that the Republic's mortgage lending boom is slowing down were in evidence in the Central Bank's monthly statistics, with the rate of increase in outstanding residential mortgages easing again in March by nearly 1 per cent on February's figure.

The adjusted annual growth rate of residential mortgages was 22 per cent in March, down from 22.9 per cent.

A further €1.7 billion was advanced to home-owners during the month, bringing the total amount owed by consumers on their mortgages to €127.6 billion.

Overall, private-sector credit is growing at its lowest rate in nearly three years, the Central Bank said.

The adjusted annual growth rate in March was 23.2 per cent, down from 24.8 per cent in February.

Total lending by credit institutions in the Republic to Irish residents increased by €2.2 billion, or 0.7 per cent, in March to a sum of €328.3 billion.

Term loans increased by €2.4 billion, while loans up to terms of one year were €286 million higher. Overdrafts rose by €276 million during the month.

Overnight deposits rose by €169 million, while deposits which can be redeemed at notice of up to three months rose by €223 million and deposits with a fixed maturity of up to two years expanded by €1.1 billion.

Special Savings Incentive Account (SSIA) balances fell by €336 million, bringing total balances with credit institutions alone down to €4.7 billion. These balances will fall to zero next month, as the final batch of SSIAs matured yesterday.