Euro zone credit growth remains brisk despite gloomy outlook

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bank lending to euro zone companies held steady, maintaining the sector's biggest borrowing binge in over a decade, despite rising interest rates and a looming recession, European Central Bank data showed on Monday.

Lending to businesses in the 19-country euro area expanded by 8.9% in October, unchanged on September when it rose to its highest rate since early 2009, fresh data showed. Household credit growth meanwhile slowed to 4.2% from 4.4%.

The monthly flow of loans to companies, however, slowed sharply, to 24.0 billion euros from 36.6 billion a month earlier with the flow of short term loans coming to a standstill.

Growth in the M3 measure of money circulating in the euro zone, meanwhile slowed to 5.1% from 6.3%, coming well under expectations for 6.2% in a Reuters survey.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Toby Chopra)