Overall bank lending in Japan was up 2.9 percent on year in September, the Bank of Japan said on Thursday - coming in at 607.742 trillion yen.
That was shy of expectations for an increase of 3.1 percent, which would have been unchanged from the August reading.
Excluding trusts, bank lending rose an annual 3.2 percent to 530.615 trillion yen, slowing from the 3.4 percent gain in the previous month.
Lending from trusts added 0.8 percent on year to 77.127 trillion yen, roughly steady from a month earlier.
For the third quarter of 2023, overall lending was up 3.0 percent on year.
