Johannesburg — The number of civil summonses issued for debt increased by 15,2% in May 2010 year-on-year, Statistics South Africa (StatsSA) announced today.

The biggest contributor to this increase was money lent , increasing 5% (from last year), "other services" added 1,9% and promissory notes and other acknowledgements of debt increased 1,8%.

However, there was a decrease of 7% for the total value of civil judgements recorded for debt in May 2010, compared to May 2009.

According to StatsSA, the major contributors behind the decrease of 7% were money lent (decreasing 4,8%), promissory notes and other acknowledgement of debt (decreasing 0,4%) and goods sold (dropping 0,4%).

During May 2010, 60 608 civil judgements for debt amounting to R520,6 million were recorded.

The largest contributors to the R520,6 million were money lent (R133,5 million or 25,6%), other debts (R111,7 million or 21,5%), goods sold (R97,2 million or 18,7%) and services (R85,9 million or 16,5%).