Japan Overall Bank Lending Rises 4.5% On Year

(RTTNews) - The value of overall bank lending in Japan was up 4.5 percent on year in February, the Bank of Japan said on Monday - coming in at 663.823 trillion yen.

That was above expectations for an increase of 4.4 percent, which would have been unchanged from the January reading following a downward revision from 4.5 percent.

Excluding trusts, bank lending rose 4.9 percent on year to 584.664 trillion yen, while lending from trusts rose 1.5 percent to 79.158 trillion yen.

Lending from foreign banks surged an annual 32.1 percent to 6.469 trillion yen.