European Loan Growth Accelerated in November, ECB Report Shows

Loans to households and companies in Europe grew at a faster annual pace in November as the economic recovery boosted demand for credit.

Loans to the private sector rose 2 percent from a year earlier after growing an annual 1.5 percent in October, the European Central Bank in Frankfurt said today. That’s the fastest since April 2009. The rate of growth in M3 money supply, which the ECB uses as a gauge of future inflation, was 1.9 percent, up from 0.9 percent in October.

The ECB, which has held its benchmark interest rate at a record low of 1 percent since May 2009, this month predicted economic growth of 1.4 percent next year after about 1.6 percent in 2010. While Germany’s economy, Europe’s largest, is expanding at the fastest pace in two decades, other euro-area members such as Ireland, Spain and Portugal are struggling to create growth as they cut spending to rein in budget deficits.

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