In January, too, 7 percent more loans to companies and 3 percent more to private individuals
The strong borrowing of companies in the euro area hardly decreased at the start of the year, despite the second corona wave. In January, the banks issued 7.0 percent more loans to companies than a year earlier, the European Central Bank (ECB) announced on Thursday. In December the plus was 7.1 percent. In January, the financial institutions granted households 3.0 percent more loans than a year earlier. In December, the increase was 3.1 percent.
In order to support the flow of credit to the economy during the corona crisis, the ECB has launched extensive monetary policy aid packages. Among other things, the central bank launched a massive new bond purchase program, which has since been topped up twice. It is now invested at 1.85 trillion euros. In addition, there are long-term liquidity injections for banks on very favorable terms. As a precautionary measure, companies bought up loans during the crisis. With this they want to prevent that they get into payment difficulties because of collapsing business.
