Philippine banks’ loan growth in January slowest in nearly two years

By Katherine K. Chan, Reporter

Philippine banks’ lending growth slowed to a near two-year low in January as outstanding loans continued to expand at a single-digit pace, preliminary central bank data showed.

Based on data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas on late Monday, universal and commercial banks’ total outstanding loans, net of reverse repurchase agreements, grew by 9.3% to P14.236 trillion in January from P13.02 trillion a year earlier.