The balance of outstanding loans at Japanese commercial banks dropped 4.5 percent in July from a year earlier to mark the 31st straight month of decline, the Bank of Japan said Tuesday.
The daily lending balance for July averaged 462.19 trillion yen. The decline was almost unchanged from June's 4.6 percent.
Counting the loans deducted from the July figure for such reasons as loan securitization, debt waivers and allocation of loan-loss reserves, the lending balance rises some 12 trillion yen to 474.38 trillion yen.
Still, the adjusted sum represents a 2 percent fall from the previous year's corresponding month.
The survey, a key gauge of credit tightness, covers five categories of private-sector Japanese banks.