Banks’ July lending grows at record pace of 23.6 percent

Local banks saw their July lending operations grow by 23.6 percent, the fastest monthly pace since April 2009. The banks issued nearly P2.8 trillion worth of loans, according to latest data the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) released Friday. “Loans for production activities, which comprised more than four-fifths of commercial banks' total loan portfolio, grew steadily at 20.5 percent in July from 20.6 percent a month earlier," the BSP said in a statement.

While production lending slowed down slightly, banks’ consumer loans increased by 15.6 percent mostly due to a 7.8 percent rise in credit card debt and 27 percent jump in auto loans. The biggest chunks of the production loans went to electricity, gas and water (up 54.2 percent), real estate, renting and business services (up 23.3 percent), manufacturing (up 15.5 percent), wholesale and retail trade (up 21.8 percent), financial intermediation (up 24.6 percent), transportation, storage and communication (up 25.6 percent); and construction (up 18.4 percent). Loans to the mining and quarrying sector quadrupled to nearly P28.55 billion from P7.13 billion in July 2010. “(C)ontractions were posted in lending to three production sectors, namely, education (-12.9 percent), health and social work (-12.3 percent); and public administration and defense (-4.3 percent)," the BSP also said. — ELR, GMA News