FRANKFURT: Growth in eurozone money supply, a key indicator of demand in the economy, picked up again in February, the European Central Bank said on Wednesday. The M3 indicator rose 2.8 percent last month, following a gain of 2.5 percent in January.
The acceleration was unexpected: analysts polled by Dow Jones Newswires had been pencilling in slightly slower growth of 2.4 percent for February.
The ECB regards the M3 figure as a key guide to inflation pressures and uses it to set interest rates accordingly.
The central bank seeks to keep eurozone inflation below but close to 2.0 percent but it stood at 2.7 percent in February.
Meanwhile, the rate of growth in eurozone bank loans to the private sector slowed to 0.7 percent in February from 1.1 percent in January, the ECB said.
That figure may heighten fears of a looming credit squeeze in the eurozone after the ECB pumped an unprecedented 1.0 trillion euros ($1.3 trillion) into the banking system since December.
There are concerns that banks are simply hoarding the cash, rather than lending it to businesses and households as the ECB hoped.
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