Bert Colijn, a Senior Economist at ING, notes that household deposit growth in Eurozone increased at the end of 2020 thanks to the second lockdown.

"The second lockdown is clearly not having the same effect as the first one did. Businesses are not drawing emergency liquidity lines as they did during the first wave."

"While lending to non-financial corporations marginally increased in December from 6.9 to 7% year-on-year, it came nowhere close to the volumes seen in March, April and May. Money lending growth to households remained stable at 3.1% YoY. Households increased deposits at a faster pace, which is probably related to lockdowns across the eurozone."

"The modest lending environment places the increase in broad money growth (M3), from 11 to 12.3% in December in an important light. The increase is mainly related to asset purchases, which is bringing down interest rates across the eurozone but not (yet) resulting in a significant surge in lending."

"The economic outlook is simply too uncertain for businesses to borrow for large investments at the moment."