Euro zone corporate lending at highest rate since 2009

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - Bank loans to euro zone companies grew at their fastest pace since the tail end of the global financial crisis last month while a measure of money circulating, often an indicator of future activity, rose unexpectedly, fresh data showed on Thursday.

Corporate lending grew by 2.2 percent in November, the highest since mid-2009 and also up from 2.1 percent last month, the European Central Bank said on Thursday.

Household lending growth meanwhile accelerated to 1.9 percent from 1.8 percent, the highest since min-2011.

The annual growth rate of the M3 measure of money circulating in the euro zone, which has in the past predicted economic activity, meanwhile rose to 4.8 percent from 4.4 percent in October, beating forecasts for 4.4 percent growth.

(Reporting by Balazs Koranyi; Editing by Elaine Hardcastle)