Tracking Europe’s Debt Crisis: “Bank lending to companies in the euro zone continued to slump in November, according to official data that could raise expectations of an interest rate cut as early as next week by the European Central Bank. The bank said that loans to companies, not including banks, in the 17-nation currency zone fell at an annual rate of 1.8 percent in November, the same rate of decline as in October. That is a sign that E.C.B. measures have not yet succeeded in restoring the flow of credit to troubled countries like Spain.”