ATHENS: The European Central Bank lowered the cap on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) Greek banks draw from the domestic central bank by 0.3 billion euros to 69.1 billion euros ($79.3 billion), the Bank of Greece said on Thursday.

The move reflected improving liquidity conditions in Greece's banking sector, helped by the stabilisation of private sector deposit flows, the Greek central bank said.

Greek banks have relied on emergency liquidity assistance (ELA) since February 2015 after being cut off from the ECB's funding window.

Emergency funding is more costly than borrowing directly from the ECB.

ELA funding from the Bank of Greece fell by 2.6 percent or 1.79 billion euros ($2.02 billion) in March to 66.19 billion euros.

Copyright Reuters, 2016