The figures, issued by the Central Bank of Ireland, also show that overall private sector credit in the economy - the amount of money

owed by Irish people and businesses - dropped by 2.1bn euro in November. The bank says almost half of this decline was due to

valuation effects, such as exchange rate movements, write-downs of loans and increased provisions for bad debts.

The drop in private sector credit followed a 2.3bn euro decline in October. The November drop left the amount of private sector credit

outstanding down 5.2pc on a year earlier. Non-housing related household credit continued to decline during the month, and was 21pc

lower on an annual basis in November. Outstanding indebtedness on personal credit cards decreased marginally on a year-to-year basis,

being 0.6pc lower in November. Total repayments exceeded new spending once again in November, as they have done for nine of the eleven

months so far in 2009. The underlying stock of credit outstanding to non-financial corporations, excluding valuation effects, was unchanged over

the month of November.