More than 700,000 Portuguese families have bank arrears of more than 90 days, according to Bank of Portugal data published yesterday and quoted by financial newspaper Diário Económico.

The number of families who stopped paying their loans for more than 90 days rose by 37,637 in the first half of 2012, the data reveals.

This figure is already superior to the number of families with arrears for the whole of 2011, namely 34,633, DE reports.

The final tally of families with arrears stands at to 708,500 as of July 2012, accounting for 15.6% of debtors in Portugal.

However, the number of new families with arrears fell in the second quarter of this year, dropping to 10,093 from 27,822 in the first quarter, the latter being a “historical record” for Portugal, the newspaper says.