The growth of Italian bank lending to businesses slowed down in September, data from the Bank of Italy showed on Thursday.

A monthly report on the balance sheets of domestic banks showed loans to non-financial companies grew by 4.4% year-on-year in September compared with a 4.8% rise in August.

The data also showed Italian residents' deposits with domestic banks were down to 2.77 trillion euros ($2.77 trillion) from 2.80 trillion euros in the previous month.

Gross unpaid loans ticked down to 34.86 billion euros at the end of September from 35.25 billion euros a month earlier. ($1 = 1.0015 euros) (Reporting by Sara Rossi, editing by)