Lending to euro zone households and firms fell slightly in February, dashing expectations for the first rise in three years but pointing to a slow turnaround in credit supply that should support an economic recovery.
Loans to the private sector fell by 0.1% on the year after a downwardly revised drop of 0.2% in January, the ECB said.
A Reuters poll had pointed to an increase of 0.1%. The last rise was in March 2012.
Sparse lending to companies has dogged the struggling euro zone economy, but earlier this week ECB President Mario Draghi said business demand for bank loans was resurgent in the bloc as cheaper credit made new investment projects more attractive.
Below today's headline figures, the money supply report offered some encouraging signs.
The monthly flow of loans to non-financial corporations, adjusted for sales and securitisation, rose by €11 billion.
ECB chief Mario Draghi told European lawmakers earlier this week that the ECB's deployment of monetary stimulus was speeding up the transmission of lower interest rates through the entire financial system.
The ECB has cut interest rates to record lows, loaned banks billions in cheap funds and begun buying sovereign bonds to try to buoy the euro zone economy and lift inflation from below zero and back towards its target of just under 2%.
The central bank plans to buy €60 billion of assets a month until September 2016, or until it sees a "sustained adjustment" in the path of inflation back towards its target.
The ECB's chief economist, Peter Praet, yesterday voiced optimism about near-term euro zone growth but said lacklustre productivity made the longer-term structural outlook less positive.
Other recent euro zone economic data have painted a positive picture. French business morale hit its highest in nearly three years in March, and in Germany it rose for the fifth month in a row.
