The Bank of Italy said bank loans to non-financial companies were up 0.2 percent in November after a 1.2 percent drop the previous month.
Corporate loans have been shrinking for nearly four years as the Italian economy sank into a prolonged recession that bankrupted hundreds of companies and saddled banks with a mountain of bad loans.
Non-performing loans at Italian banks rose 11 percent in November from a year earlier to 201.03 billion euros compared with 198.98 billion euros the previous month.