The European Central Bank (ECB) said today the euro zone's M3 money supply had risen by 6.4 per cent in July following a 6.1 per cent hike in June.
The M3 figure covers cash, overnight deposits, other short-term deposits, repurchase agreements, shares and units in money market funds and debt securities with a maturity of up to two years.
It is the ECB's preferred indicator of medium-term inflationary trends.
The ECB has set a target of 4.5 per cent for M3 growth this year, but growth has so far consistently overshot that target.
As the monthly figure is subject to short-term fluctuations, the ECB also calculates a three-month moving average for M3 growth, which it considers to be more reliable.
This stood at 5.9 per cent in the period from May to July, compared with a figure of 5.3 per cent for the period from April to June. Analysts had expected the three-month average to come in at 5.8 per cent.
But growth in loans to the private sector slowed slightly to 8.2 per cent in July, from 8.4 per cent one month earlier.
AFP