Rate cuts spur double-digit credit growth

MANILA, Philippines — Credit growth picked up pace in November last year, rising by 10.1 percent as the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas slashed key interest rates and lowered the reserve requirement of banks.’

According to BSP data, banks disbursed P8.95 trillion worth of loans as of end-November last year, P821 billion more than the P8.13 trillion released a year ago.

BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno said loans extended for production activities went up by 8.1 percent to P7.8 trillion from P7.21 trillion, accounting for 87.2 percent of the total portfolio.

Diokno said the growth in lending to the real estate sector increased by 19.3 percent to P1.63 trillion as of end-November last year and accounted for 18.2 percent of the total loan disbursements by big banks.

Meanwhile, the increase in disbursements to the wholesale and retail trade as well as repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles slowed down to 2.1 percent to P1.16 trillion.

Diokno said releases to the manufacturing sector continued to contract, this time by 2.3 percent to P1.03 trillion from P1.06 trillion.

On the other hand, the BSP chief said disbursements for the electricity, gas, steam and airconditioning supply grew at a faster rate of 7.6 percent to P979.53 billion.

Diokno also cited the faster growth in loan disbursements to households due to the continued improvement in the country’s economic growth as well as lower interest rates.

Data from the central bank showed lending for household consumption jumped by 26.6 percent to P810.41 billion as of end-November from a year-ago level of P646.6 billion.

Auto loans zoomed by 31.1 percent to P375.67 billion from P286.62 billion, while credit card loans surged by 26.5 percent to P352.36 billion from P278.47 billion.