FRANKFURT: The decline in lending to households and firms in the euro zone slowed slightly in June, and money supply grew as the European Central Bank's new stimulus measures find their way through the system.

In an unprecedented move, the ECB started in June charging banks to keep their deposits overnight, a step it hopes will encourage banks to lend.

A fresh injection of ultra-long loans later this year should make lending easier yet.

The central bank is also putting the bloc's top banks through a thorough review of their balance sheets to weed out soured loans, update collateral valuations and adjust capital so that they can give out loans more freely in future.

This will also, however, take time to take full effect. ECB data showed on Friday that loans to the private sector fell by 1.7 percent in June from the same month a year earlier after a contraction of 2.0 percent in May.

Euro zone M3 money supply - a more general measure of cash in the economy - grew at an annual pace of 1.5 percent, up from 1.0 percent in May.