Lending to households continued to fall in April, but the pace of decline moderated slightly, new data showed today.

Figures from the Central Bank revealed an annual drop of 4.6 per cent in lending, compared with a 5 per cent drop in March.

The loss of Irish private-sector resident deposits also slowed in the year to April, showing a fall of 9.1 per cent compared with 10 per cent in the 12 months ending March.

However, a drop in lending to the non-financial corporate (NFC) sector picked up pace, accelerating from 1.3 per cent in March to 2.2 per cent in April.

Regarding household lending, loans for house purchases fell by 2 per cent, and lending for consumption and other purposes slumped by 13.4 per cent in the year.

During the month, household lending fell by €581 million, driven by a decline of €352 million in loans for consumption purposes.

Over the three months to the end of April, the Central Bank said the monthly net flow of loans to households was an average of minus €421 million, the majority of which was a decline in consumer loans of €212 million.

Spending on credit cards also fell in April, declining to €846 million, although outstanding debt rose to just over €2.8 million.

A underlying rise of €2.3 billion in Irish resident private-sector deposits during the month of April was fuelled by deposits from other financial institutions, which includes the National Asset Management Agency (Nam). OFIs contributed €2.8 billion during the month.

Household deposits increased slightly during the month, by €11 million. NFC deposits were down €292 million.

The Central Bank said credit institutions’ borrowings as part of Eurosystem monetary policy operations fell by almost €5 billion to €106 billion in April 2011, with domestic organisations accounting for almost €78 billion.