MOSCOW. Dec 17 (Interfax) - Overdue debt on mortgage loans soared 6.2-fold to 5 billion rubles, or to 0.5% of total mortgage debt in January-September, the Central Bank said in its latest Banking Statistics Bulletin.

Overall debt on mortgage loans grew 59.4% during the period, from 611.2 billion rubles to 974.5 billion rubles. The debt grew 107.9% in the same period of last year.

Mortgage loans accounted for 24.3% of total debt on loans to individuals as of October 1, up from 20.6% on January 1.

The CB said this tendency can be expected to strengthen in view of the fact that banks have started to review and firm up their terms for lending, both from the point of view of down-payments and interest rates or have temporarily stopped extending mortgage loans; and because more and more borrowers are having difficulty repaying these loans.