In line with the +0.1% year-on-year rise in M3 in December (its first increase since June 2023), lending to the private sector increased +0.5% year-on-year vs +0.4% in November, mainly thanks to a rebound in corporate lending (+0.4% vs 0% in November). The ECB released Eurozone private sector lending data on Friday, with an increase of €2.6mm in December (+0.5% year-on-year) thanks to a rebound in corporate lending (+0.4% vs 0% in November) and despite a slight decline in lending to households (+0.3% vs +0.5% in November).
Among large European economies, the divergence between the growth of French (+2.4%) and German (+1.4%) corporate loans and the fall in Spanish lending (-3.6%) and Italian (-3.9%) lending. Similarly, lending to
households is also positive in Germany (+0.6%) and France (+1.4%), but
negative in Spain (-2%) and Italy (-1.3%).
The exception to this divergence between core and peripheral countries is in consumer credit, where the lowest growth rate is in German credit: +0.9%, in contrast to +5.4% for Italian credit and +2.1% at the European level.
