Eurozone lending to the private sector grew faster last month than at any time since the euro?s launch in 1999, presaging another rise in European Central Bank interest rates next month, possibly by a larger-than-usual half percentage point.

Loans to the private sector saw an annual growth rate of 11.3 per cent in April, the ECB said on Tuesday, up from 10.8 per cent in March. Economists had to refer to reconstructed data for 1989, assuming that the eurozone had existed then, to find a faster growth rate.