Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- Bangladesh’s private sector credit growth bounced back in August last following implementation of different infrastructure development projects, officials said.
The growth in credit flow to private sector rose to 16.21 per cent in August 2016 on a year-on-year basis from 15.97 per cent in July last, according to the central bank’s latest statistics. It was 16.78 per cent in June 2016.
Talking to BBN, a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) said the private sector credit growth increased again by the end of August for importing capital machinery and different construction materials.
He also said such capital machinery and construction materials were imported to implement different infrastructure development projects including Padma Bridge.
The total outstanding loans with private sector rose to BDT 6,719.25 billion in August 2016 from BDT 6,653.12 billion in July. It was BDT 5,781.77 billion in August 2015.
The central bank of Bangladesh had earlier projected that private sector credit would grow at 16.60 per cent in December 2016 and 16.50 per cent in June 2017.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s overall imports grew by more than 17 per cent in August 2016 compared to the previous month despite lower commodity prices in the global market.
The settlement of letters of credit (LCs), generally known as actual import, rose to US$3.43 billion in August from $2.92 billion a month ago.
On the other hand, the opening of fresh LCs against import, generally known as import orders, increased by 22.60 per cent to $3.81 billion in August from $3.11 billion in July.
BBN/SSR/AD