Civil summonses issued for debt increased in February, Statistics SA said on Thursday.

The total number of civil summonses issued for debt for the three months ended February 2009 increased by 15.4 percent compared with the three months ended February 2008, the Pretoria-based agency said.

There was also a 14.4 percent increase between February 2008 and February 2009.

The growth in the number of civil judgements recorded for debt remained negative, however.

According to Statistics SA, the total number of civil judgements recorded for debt for the three months ended February 2009 was 4.8 percent lower compared with the three months ended February 2008.

There was also a decrease of 8.2 percent between February 2008 and February 2009.

The value of civil judgements recorded for debt has however increased, Statistics SA said.

The total value of civil judgements recorded for debt for the three months ended February 2009 increased by 5.4 percent compared with the three months ended February 2008.

There was, however, a decrease of 9.3 percent between February 2008 and February 2009.

Commenting on the data, Nedbank economist Carmen Altenkirch said that the monthly figures tended to be quite volatile, which could give a distorted picture.

"If one looks at the smoothed series [three-month moving average] the trend shows that civil cases are on the rise, particularly for individuals, which have begun to increase steadily over the past three months.

"The number of households being declared bankrupt is expected to continue to rise this year," she said.

Although falling interest rates would make debt repayment more manageable for some, the key driver of bankruptcies was likely to be unemployment, which was set to increase, Altenkirch added.

Sapa

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