Comm’l bank lending up to P1.5 trillion as of April

Commercial bank lending went up by almost one percent as of end-April, reaching P1.5 trillion, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported yesterday.

The BSP reported that commercial bank (KB) loans to the agriculture, fisheries and forestry sector posted a marked increase of 12.6 percent in April, about twice the 6.4 percent annual growth registered in the previous month.

The growth in bank lending to the other sectors also contributed to the sustained rise in the outstanding loans of commercial banks such as those granted to the transportation, storage and communications sector, which grew by 7.3 percent.

The BSP reported that loans to the community, social and personal services sector also went up by 7.1 percent while loans to the electricity, gas and water sector was up 4.8 percent and loans to wholesale, retail and trade sector was up 2.5 percent.

The BSP, however, said bank lending to manufacturing, was unchanged with no significant indications of banks gaining more interest in lending to manufacturing firms.

The manufacturing sector reported a 0.2 percent annual growth after four months of continued decline. Altogether, borrowings by its sub-sectors accounted for 71.6 percent of the total KB loans as of end-April 2004.

The BSP said that in the near term, there were favorable prospects for sustained growth in bank lending given the strong performance of the economy in the first quarter, which grew significantly by 6.4 percent in terms of real GDP.

"Credit activity could strengthen further in the months ahead as consumption spending continued to be robust and investments started to pick up," the BSP said.

The BSP said there were also indications suggesting continuing improvements in economic activity, such as the sustained rise in sales of consumer durables and energy sales.

In particular, passenger car sales grew at a hefty 119.1 percent year-on-year, reflecting seven straight months of double-digit growth. This is the primary indicator of how auto loans would behave and an increase in car sales usually means a corresponding increase in auto loan financing by banks.

Similarly, energy sales by Meralco rose by 7.8 percent in March 2004 from the level a year ago. Merchandise exports for the period January-April posted a growth of 6.9 percent over a year-ago level. In addition, merchandise imports rose by 6.4 percent in the first quarter from the previous year’s level.