Bank lending rose faster in December

February 5, 2020

Preliminary data show that outstanding loans of universal and commercial banks, net of reverse repurchase (RRP) placements with the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), grew by 10.9 percent in December, faster than the 10.1-percent expansion in the previous month.

On a month-on-month seasonally-adjusted basis, commercial bank loans net of RRPs grew by 1.3 percent, the BSP said

Loans for production activities—which comprised 87.4 percent of banks' aggregate loan portfolio, net of RRPs—expanded at a rate of 9.1 percent in December, higher than the reported growth in November at 8.1 percent. The sustained increase in production loans was driven primarily by lending to the following sectors: real estate activities (19.7 percent); financial and insurance activities (17.2 percent); electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply (8.3 percent); construction (23.4 percent); and information and communication (12.9 percent).

Bank lending to other sectors also increased during the month, except those to manufacturing (-1.9 percent), mining and quarrying (-11.0 percent), professional, scientific and technical activities (-4.6 percent), and other community, social and personal activities (-21.7 percent).

Meanwhile, loans from universal and commercial banks for household consumption grew by 27.5 percent in December from 26.6 percent in November due to faster growth in credit card and salary-based consumption loans during the month. DMS