The European Central Bank pumped more than twice as much liquidity than expected into the financial system Thursday via private-sector loans, data showed.
The Frankfurt-based central bank said 143 banks had borrowed 97.8 billion euros ($104 billion) under the third round of a lending programme aimed at boosting the moribund eurozone economy and halting a stubborn drop in inflation.
The amount borrowed was double that of forecasts of analysts who had pencilled in an uptake of around 40 billion euros under the Targeted Long-Term Refinancing Operations (TLTRO) programme.