Eurozone money supply growth accelerated in December, while loans to the private sector continued to fall, the European Central Bank said Thursday.
M3, the broad measure of money supply, grew at a faster pace of 3.6 percent following a 3.1 percent rise in November. The annual growth rate also exceeded a 3.5 percent rise forecast by economists.
The three-month average of the annual growth rates of M3 during October to December increased to 3.1 percent from 2.7 percent in the period from September to November.
Loans to the private sector fell 0.5 percent in December from last year, but the pace of decrease was slower than November's 0.9 percent drop.
Loans to households dipped 0.3 percent and that to non-financial corporations declined 1.3 percent in December.
The ECB will be looking to its Quantitative Easing programme to further facilitate and encourage bank lending to the private sector, said IHS Global Insight's Chief European Economist Howard Archer.
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