Debt of Spanish banks to ECB rises by 0.55 pct in October

The total debt of Spanish banks to the European Central Bank (ECB) rose by 0.55 percent in October when compared with September, according to data released on Monday by the Bank of Spain.

The bank reported that Spanish banks owed a total of 135.509 billion euros (145.130 billion U.S. dollars) to the ECB, which meant a 2.55-percent fall when compared with the same month of a year earlier, when Spanish banks owed 138.924 billion euros to the European institution.

The debt to the ECB represented 24.27 percent of the total eurozone's debt in October, which is far below the 80 percent it had reached before the Spanish government requested a bailout for its banks in June 2012.

In August of that year, the debt had peaked at 388.736 billion euros. (1 euro = 1.07 U.S. dollars) Endit