BAGUIO CITY – The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that preliminary data showed that outstanding loans of universal and commercial banks, net of reverse repurchase placements rose by 12.2 percent year-on-year in December from 11.2 percent in November.
On a month-on-month seasonally adjusted basis, the BPS said that outstanding loans, net of reverse repurchase increased by 1.4 percent.
Further, outstanding loans to residents, net of reverse repurchase also increased by 12.4 percent in December from an 11.4 percent growth in the previous month.
The BSP added that outstanding loans to non-residents’ expanded at a faster rate of 5.7 percent in December from 3.9 percent in November.
Loans for production activities increased by 10.8 percent in December from 9.8 percent in November due largely to sustained increase in lending to key industries such as wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles 10.1 percent, electricity, gas, steam and air conditioning supply – 14.2 percent; manufacturing – 7.4 percent; financial and insurance activities – 7.4 percent and construction – 12.6 percent.
Moreover, consumer loans to residents went up further by 25 percent in December from 23.3 percent in November due to the increase in credit card loans; salary-based general purpose consumption loans and motor vehicle loans.
The BSP assured that domestic liquidity and bank lending conditions remain consistent with its price and financial stability objectives that will contribute in advancing the state of the country’s economy in the future. By Dexter A. See
