Loans extended by commercial banks jumped by 18% in Feb.

Commercial banks’ lending jumped by 18.1 percent year-on-year to P6.038 trillion in February, according to Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas data released on Friday.

Last month, the increase in total loans outstanding to residents and non-residents net of reverse repurchase (RRP) placements with the BSP exceeded the 17.9-percent growth posted last January, during which outstanding loans stood at P5.989 trillion.

Gross of RRPs, bank lending grew by a higher 17.5 percent year-on-year to P6.322 trillion, compared with the previous month’s 16.2-percent expansion.

“On a month-on-month seasonally-adjusted basis, commercial bank lending for loans net of RRPs and loans inclusive of RRPs increased by 1.5 percent and 1.8 percent, respectively,” the BSP said in a statement.

Last February, production loans rose 17.6 percent year-on-year to P5.383 trillion, faster than the 17.5-percent growth in January. Loans for production activities accounted for 89.1 percent of banks’ aggregate loan portfolio.

The BSP mainly attributed production loan growth last month to higher lending to information and communication (up 40 percent year-on-year), financial and insurance activities (up 28.4 percent), real estate activities (up 17.1 percent), electricity, gas, steam and air-conditioning supply (up 14.2 percent); wholesale and retail trade, repair of motor vehicles and motorcycles (up 13.9 percent); and manufacturing (up 11 percent).

“Bank lending to other sectors also increased during the month except in the case of public administration and defense, compulsory social security [which declined by] 7 percent,” the BSP said.

Loans for household consumption also grew by a faster 24.6 percent year-on-year to P489.9 billion last month, compared with the 23.7-percent growth in the previous month.

The BSP said the sustained rise in household lending came on the back of “expansion in credit card loans and auto loans as well as sustained growth in salary-based general-purpose loans, offsetting the decline in other types of household loans.”