In the three months ending in May the annualized decline came to half a percentage point, compared with a much faster decrease of around 3 per cent in the middle months of 2014. Lending to households has begun to grow again, if only modestly. The timing and strength of the upturn vary by sector and by individual firm.
Lending to manufacturing and non-real-estate service firms that have no debt payment arrears has expanded, but credit to firms in construction and real-estate services, sectors where the overall risk remains high, is still diminishing.