Irish households withdrew €541 million in deposits last month, according to new private sector credit figures from the Central Bank.

The preference for overnight and short-term deposit accounts continues, also owing to the low interest rate environment.

Banks now hold €3.6 billion more household deposits than loans.

It means households were net funders of the banking system for the eight consecutive month, a situation which has not happened since before the turn of the century.

When it comes to loans, mortgage lending continues to fall, down 2.4% (a figure of €327 million) for the year to February.

Households repaid € 1.9 billion more than was issued in the form of new loans.

The amount of outstanding non-housing related loans also fell by €48 million for the month, down 3.9% in the year.

Earlier this month, the Economic and Social Research Institute called on the Central Bank to ease borrowing requirements in the short-term to help with the housing crisis.

The annual demand of 25,000 new units is not expected to be met until 2018.