Madrid, Apr 14 (IANS/EFE): Spanish financial institutions borrowed a record 316.34 billion euros ($417 billion) from the European Central Bank last month, according to data released by Spain's central bank.
The March total was nearly double the 169.8 billion euros Spain's banks borrowed from the ECB in February.
The amount of money Spanish banks had on deposit with the ECB quadrupled from 19.66 billion euros in February to 88.74 billion euros last month, also a record, the Banco de Espana said Friday.
Spanish banks' net borrowing from the ECB reached 227.6 billion euros in March, compared with 152.43 billion euros in February.
As part of its Long-Term Refinancing Operation, the ECB has provided euro zone banks with roughly 1 trillion euros of low-interest, 3-year loans.