International banking activity grew in the third quarter of last year, the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) said Tuesday, despite a slowdown in lending to emerging markets. The Basel-based body, considered the central bank of central banks, said cross-border claims in the July to September period stood at $493 billion (425 billion euros), boosting the annual growth rate to five percent from one percent at the end of June.
It said this increase was mainly concentrated in Japanese yen (a 15-percent rise) and in the US dollar. Cross-border lending in euros meanwhile stopped contracting for the first time since 2008, and rose one percent year-on-year, it said. This number however masks large differences across the eurozone, with lending to France growing nine percent but figures for Spain and Germany down six percent and four percent respectively. The third quarter was meanwhile clouded by a slowdown in lending to emerging markets such as Brazil. Loans to China rose by $38 billion but growth in other parts of Asia were modest.