# How much do Irish households owe in total?



## Brendan Burgess (12 Aug 2016)

I have seen a lot of conflicting figures for this and want to get an idea of how much we owe in total.  I have asked the CB and the CSO, but if anyone can help me in the meantime, I would appreciate it. Someone else must have done this exercise.

Family homes:       €101 billion
Buy to lets:           €26 billion
Source: [broken link removed] Includes both bank and non bank lenders.

Consumer Credit advanced to Irish households: €11.8 billion
From Central Bank [broken link removed]

Other loans: €3.4 billion 

Personal Credit Cards: €1.7 billion
Source: [broken link removed]Not clear if this excludes non banks who offer credit cards such as American Express or MBNA. But it gives a good indicator

Total: €143.9 billion


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Aug 2016)

Other information

From Central Bank [broken link removed]
Consumer Credit advanced to Irish households: €11.8 billion
Other loans to Irish households: €3.4 billion - presumably "non consumer credit" is business loans and overdrafts? 

Household deposits: €95.9 billion

This  includes Credit Unions 

Credit Unions: €3 billion
Credit Union Advisory Committee Report - It says €3.8 billion, but at least 0.8 billion is backed by shares.

From Central Bank: [broken link removed]
Household credit: €125 billion - of which €109 billion is for house purchase
Excludes non bank lenders I think


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Aug 2016)

[broken link removed]

The reporting population which is covered in these tables are all credit institutions resident
in Ireland.  Credit institutions, as defined in Community Law, are undertakings whose
business is to receive deposits or other repayable funds from the public and to grant credits
for their own account and/or issue means of payment in the form of electronic money.  In
the Irish case, resident credit institutions comprise licensed banks, building societies and,
since January 2009, credit unions as regulated by the Registrar of Credit Unions.  A resident
office means an office or branch of the reporting institution which is located in ‘the State’
(the Republic of Ireland). These are: institutions incorporated and located in the Republic of
Ireland, including subsidiaries of parent companies located outside the Republic of Ireland;
and branches of institutions that have their head office outside the Republic of Ireland.
Reporting institutions report the data in respect of their resident offices only.


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## PMU (12 Aug 2016)

Brendan Burgess said:


> I have seen a lot of conflicting figures for this and want to get an idea of how much we owe in total.


  According to Eurostat in 2014 the debt to household income ration was 179.55%, but has been decreasing since a peak in 2009.. 
[broken link removed]
It's not the absolute level of debt that is particularly important; it's what percentage this is to income; i.e. your ability to pay it off; and are you paying it off.


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Aug 2016)

Hi PMU

I am trying to get a figure for the size of the market.  It's not to do with affordability or anything like that.  So it's the absolute figures I am looking for. 

Brendan


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## PMU (12 Aug 2016)

Brendan Burgess said:


> Hi PMU
> 
> I am trying to get a figure for the size of the market.  It's not to do with affordability or anything like that.  So it's the absolute figures I am looking for.
> 
> Brendan


This says a Central Bank report shows that households' total debt stood at €151.2 billion in the third quarter of 2015. http://www.rte.ie/news/business/2016/0412/781252-central-bank-household-credit/

and this OECD page shows it at 149.6 billion at end  2015. http://stats.oecd.org/Index.aspx?DataSetCode=NAAG_2015_NOV15


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Aug 2016)

Thanks PMU

I have totaled all the figures in the first post, and they come to €143.9 billion - so it's probably near enough.

I am surprised that neither the CSO nor the Central Bank publishes a simple table along the lines of the first post. 

Brendan


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## Brendan Burgess (12 Aug 2016)

Hi PMU

I followed your RTE link to this: [broken link removed]
Extracts: 

 Total debt stood at e151.2bn in Q3 2015, .  Total debt at Q3 2015 comprises short-term
loans (up to one year or payable on demand) of approximately
e5.4bn and long-term loans (greater than
one year maturity) of e145.7bn.

I will ask the Central Bank for the composition of that figure. 

Brendan


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## PMU (19 Aug 2016)

According to today's Indo, Irish household debt fell by €1.1bn to €148.5bn in the first quarter of the year. http://www.independent.ie/business/...ebt-at-lowest-level-in-10-years-34977878.html.

But it's not that simple. The Indo goes on to say that "the fall in the debts of households was due to loan repayments of €300m, debt write-downs/write-offs of €300m and €500m of negative reclassifications.  This is thought to mean that debts which had previously been classified as households debts have been moved by banks to be classified as company debt - particularly in the case of business owners."


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