Euro zone business lending continues to drop - ECB
FRANKFURT, June 25 (Reuters) - New lending to euro zone companies fell again in May, extending a drop from the previous month even as the bloc began its recovery from a pandemic induced recession, data from the European Central Bank showed on Friday.
The monthly flow of loans to euro zone companies was a negative 3 billion euros in May after a negative 24 billion a month earlier, indicating that banks are growing cautious in extending credit.
The annual growth rate of corporate lending meanwhile plunged to 1.9% from 3.2% a month earlier.
Household lending growth picked up to 3.9% from 3.8% a month earlier, hitting its highest level since the global financial crisis over a decade ago.
The annual growth rate of the M3 measure of money supply, mostly a reflection of the ECB's copious bond purchases, slowed to 8.4% from 9.2% a month earlier, just short of market expectations for 8.5% growth. (Reporting by Balazs Koranyi)
