Banks’ dollar loans up in Q4

Foreign currency loans extended by local banks reached $12.2 billion from October to December last year, up 3.7 percent from the third quarter, due to strong economic growth, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Friday.

The higher end-December foreign currency deposit units (FCDU) figure from $11.8 billion the previous quarter was a result of disbursements exceeding principal repayments, the BSP said.

“The expansion of the FCDU loan portfolio may be attributed to positive business sentiment arising from strong macroeconomic fundamentals, as well as the 6.3-percent GDP (gross domestic product) growth of the country in the fourth quarter of 2015,” the BSP added.

But on a year-on-year basis, outstanding FCDU loans were almost flat, with an increase of just around $10 million.

Full-year transactions in 2015 “resulted in net disbursement of only $74 million, which was partly offset by negative adjustments [due to exchange rate movements and reclassification of accounts reported] of $61 million,” the BSP explained.

Outstanding FCDU loans to resident borrowers, which at $8.6 billion accounted for 70.8 percent of the total, were placed in the following: Merchandise and service exporters ($2.7 billion); towing, tanker, trucking, forwarding, personal and other individuals ($2.6 billion); public utility firms ($1.2 billion); producers/manufacturers, including oil companies ($1 billion); and management/holding and stock brokerage (about $500 million).

As for gross disbursements, these declined by a mere 0.03 percent quarter-on-quarter to $15.8 billion. Ben O. de Vera