Loans provided to the euro area private sector declined 0.8 percent in March from the prior year, as seen in February, the European Central Bank said Friday.
The broad measure monetary aggregate, M3 increased at a slower pace of 2.6 percent in March, following a 3.1 percent rise in February.
The three-month average of the annual growth rates of M3 in the period from January to March came in at 3 percent.
The annual growth rate of loans to households slowed marginally to 0.4 percent from 0.5 percent in February. At the same time, credit extended to the private sector eased 0.9 percent, which was smaller than the 1.1 percent decline in the previous month.
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