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 The picture for credit in the bloc has been gradually improving
since late 2014 after the ECB embarked on asset purchases, which it
later expanded into a trillion euro plus program that includes
sovereign bonds.
The quantitative easing scheme, designed to lift the economy, has
fueled demand in particular for assets that offer a high return and
tend to rise in value along with inflation, such as property.
Lending growth for home loans was up 1.6 percent in June, shooting
up from growth of 0.1 percent two months earlier. Consumer credit
too grew at 1.8 percent, compared to a slight contraction in April.
The latest data suggests consumers have largely ignored political
troubles in Greece, which had closed down its banks and came close
to falling out of the currency bloc before securing a last-minute
bridging loan earlier this month.
"Despite Greece, China and other irritants, the euro zone recovery
is on track and looks set to pick up some extra momentum later this
year," Holger Schmieding, an economist at Berenberg, said.
Yet the effects of money printing are not felt evenly throughout the
economy and companies, which are debatably the most important driver
for long-term recovery, still struggle to borrow.
Lending to companies fell by 0.2 percent in June. This was, however,
a slower pace of decline for the 11th month in a row.
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The M3 measure of money circulating in the euro zone, which is often
an early indicator of future economic activity, grew by 5.0 percent
in June, in line with the previous month, the ECB said.
In a separate paper published on Monday, the European Central Bank
said price inflation is set to gradually improve this year but that
it remains too early to predict a turning point.
(Reporting By Francesco Canepa; Editing by John O'Donnell/Jeremy
Gaunt)
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