MILAN (Reuters) – Italian banks increased their lending to companies in June, as business resumed after a government-imposed national lockdown was gradually lifted, data showed on Monday.
A monthly Bank of Italy report on domestic banks’ balance sheets showed that loans to non-financial companies were up 3.7% year-on-year, almost double the 1.9% rise seen in May.
Gross unpaid loans were down to 68.05 billion euros ($79.98 billion) at the end of June versus 71.21 billion euros a month earlier.
Italian residents’ deposits with domestic banks kept rising, reaching 2.64 trillion euros, while holdings of domestic government bonds were steady at 434.3 billion euros in June compared to 419.3 billion euros in May.
(This story corrects final paragraph to show comparison is with May not April)
(Reporting by Alessia P, editing by Giulia Segreti)
