Growth in lending to eurozone businesses and households picked up in November, official data showed Friday, in an encouraging sign for European Central Bank chiefs as they begin withdrawing support for the economy. The pace of growth in loans to the private sector added 0.1 percentage points last month to reach 2.9 percent year-on-year, according to European Central Bank figures adjusted for some purely financial transactions.

Central bank governors watch loan growth closely as an indicator of whether policies designed to stimulate growth and inflation in the 19-nation single currency area are working.

Copyright Agence France-Presse, 2017