European Loan Growth Quickened in August, Defying Debt Crisis
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Growth in loans to households and companies in the 17-nation euro area accelerated in August, defying the region’s sovereign debt crisis that’s threatening to undermine growth.
Loans to the private sector grew 2.6 percent from a year earlier after advancing an annual 2.4 percent in July, the European Central Bank said today. The rate of growth in M3 money supply, which the Frankfurt-based ECB uses as a gauge of future inflation, stood at 2.8 percent compared with 2.1 percent in the previous month.