In the fourth quarter of 2011 it registered a strong squeeze on loans to households and businesses. It communicates it Bank of Italy last Survey on bank lending in the euro area. According to via Nazionale, the trend will also continue in the current quarter.
Between October and December 2011, the criteria for the granting of loans to businesses and households "underwent a significant tightening - reads the document -, determined above all by the difficulties in accessing financing on the wholesale markets and by the liquidity problems encountered by intermediaries in the quarter, as well as by the deterioration of the economic outlook".
The tightening “has translated into an increase in interest margins, but also, for companies, in a review of credit lines. An accentuation of tensions on supply, but of less intensity, is also expected for the current quarter".
The growth in the demand for loans from businesses, Bankitalia points out, remained substantially unchanged in the fourth quarter, while the demand from households slowed down.
