The Bank of Italy on Monday said the number of bank loans to the private sector in the country rose by 0.6% in February on an annual basis.
Loans had dropped 0.2% in January and 0.4% in December last year.
In particular, loans to households grew 1% over the previous year, while loans to non-financial firms went up 0.3%, the central bank said in its statistical bulletin ''Moneta e banche'', or currency and banks, released on Monday.
Also, interest rates on mortgages to households dropped to 2.76% in February from 2.85% in January.
Interest rates on new consumption loans went up 8.52% from 8.50% in January, the central bank said.
Moreover, interest rates on new loans to non-financial companies of up to one million euros fell to 2.73% from 2.78% in January and those above such threshold decreased to 1.10% from 1.55% in January.
Non-performing loans in February dropped to 196 billion euros from 202 billion in January but grew 4.7% on an annual basis, the Bank of Italy said.
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