Emerging markets received $341 billion of new credit inflows in 2006, up 47 percent from a year earlier as borrowing increased to a record in developing Europe, according to the Bank for International Settlements, cited by Bloomberg.

Investment and lending have boomed in eastern Europe, pushing up wages and spurring consumer spending, as eight nations joined the European Union in 2004 and a further two followed this year. More than 60 percent of new credit to emerging markets went to European countries in the last three months of 2006, the BIS said today in a quarterly report.

``Emerging Europe overtook emerging Asia as the region to which BIS reporting banks extend the greatest share of credit,'' the bank said in its review of financial markets. Borrowing by emerging Asia was flat, the Basel, Switzerland-based bank said.

Flows into Thailand slowed after the country imposed capital controls in December. Thailand had net outflows of $3.8 billion in the fourth quarter, partly because of an 8 percent drop in lending to the country's borrowers, the BIS said. Thailand's central bank in March removed most of the controls it had imposed on investments from abroad as long as they are hedged to avoid profiting from currency swings.

The BIS said inflows of new credit to Europe were boosted more by lending to countries including Romania, Malta, Ukraine and Cyprus, than to larger borrowers such as Russia, Turkey, Poland and Hungary.

Borrowing in euros outpaced that in dollars in the region, said the BIS, which was formed in 1930 to monitor markets and promote cooperation between central banks.

``The currency denomination of cross-border claims on emerging Europe tilted further toward the euro,'' the BIS said. Claims outstanding in euros totalled 44 percent, compared with 31 percent for dollars, the report said.

The bank said claims on emerging markets grew by $96 billion in the final three months of the year. Africa and the Middle East received 24 percent of new credit and Latin America 12 percent, it said.

Romania and Bulgaria joined the European Union on Jan. 1, while the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland entered in 2004.