Overall bank lending in Japan was up 3.1 percent on year in December, the Bank of Japan said on Friday - coming in at 614.599 trillion yen.
That beat forecasts for a 2.7 percent increase and was up from 2.8 percent in November.
Excluding trusts, lending was up an annual 3.4 percent at 537.244 trillion yen, while lending from trusts rose 0.5 percent to 77.354 trillion yen.
For the fourth quarter of 2023, overall lending rose 2.9 percent, lending excluding trusts climbed 3.2 percent and lending from trusts added 0.6 percent.
