The amount of loans disbursed by the banks in the just-concluded fiscal 2010-2011 posted a 23 per cent rise year on year, despite the high interest rates.
According to the Bangladesh Bank data, as on June 30, 2010 the amount of cumulative loans disbursed by the banks in fiscal year 2009-2010 was Tk 2,68,304 crore, which was Tk 3,29,284 crore in FY2010-2011.
In FY2010, the amount of credit given by the state-owned commercial banks was Tk 61,978 crore, private commercial banks Tk 1,73,426 crore, foreign banks Tk 15,920 crore, and specialised banks Tk 16,982 crore.
In FY2011, the state-owned commercial banks posted a year-on-year lending growth of 31 per cent, private commercial banks 23 per cent and foreign banks 28 per cent, while the specialised banks showed a negative growth of 8.4 per cent, the BB data shows.
As on June 2011, the total amount of lending made by the state-owned commercial banks in the last fiscal year stood at Tk 81,127 crore, private commercial banks Tk 2,12,237 crore, foreign banks Tk 20,366 crore, and specialised banks Tk 15,556 crore.
According to the central bank, bank loan disbursement has been increasing since last December, posting a 5 per cent rise in June.
Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry president AK Azad said, although the BB data showed that bank loan disbursement had increased but many of the businesses continued to face difficulties in getting loans and banks were still charging high interest.
'The overall cost of business and production has increased due to the high interest on bank loans, which is also fuelling inflation,' he said.
He said banks were charging 18 to 20 per cent interest on loans offered to different productive sectors and it was really tough to sustain a business paying such a high interest.
'Some banks are even saying that they are not interested to give loans to businesses as they have a liquidity crisis,' the FBCCI chief said.
He suggested that central bank should frame its monetary policy taking the interests of the businesses and investment in consideration.
A senior BB official said, 'The recent increase in loan disbursement was caused by inflated import financing.'
The BB is going to announce next week the monetary policy for the first half of the current fiscal year, in which the amount of consumer and small and medium enterprise loans will be tightened.
The BB official said, 'The new monetary policy is aimed at reducing credit flow to the unproductive sectors as the central bank has found that a huge amount of SME loans was being misused.'
Soruce : New Age
