The tight squeeze on lending to home buyers and businesses that followed the US sub-prime crisis has eased slightly in the last three months, the European Central Bank said today.
But demand for lending has fallen, and banks are wary of lending for household expenditure, the survey found.
The ECB's July survey of more than 100 euro zone banks found 'somewhat lower net tightening of credit standards' for businesses and for home purchases than in the first quarter of the year.
This was a reference to a period over the New Year into the first quarter when banks were reluctant to lend to each other and central banks injected short-term funding into the banking system.
Meanwhile, conditions for loans for consumer credit and other household purchases had tightened slightly because banks expected economic conditions to deteriorate in coming months.
