Dhaka, Bangladesh (BBN)- The overall excess liquidity with Bangladesh’s commercial banks decreased slightly in May last, following the recent higher credit growth particularly in the private sector.
The excess liquidity came down to BDT 1.17 trillion in the first week of May from BDT 1.19 trillion two months ago, according to the central bank’s latest statistics.
Besides, excess reserve, generally known as excess over daily minimum cash reserve requirement (CRR) with the central bank, came down to BDT 37 billion in May from Tk 39 billion in March.
“The volume of excess liquidity has recorded a declining trend recently, following increased credit flow to the private sector mainly due to lower interest rates on lending as well as political stability,” a senior official of the Bangladesh Bank (BB) told BBN in Dhaka.
He also said most of the excess liquidity has already been invested in the government-approved securities as a risk-free investment for banks.
“We expect that the declining trend of excess liquidity with the banks may continue in the coming months, if the existing private sector credit flow persists,” the central banker explained.
Meanwhile, private sector credit growth has already surpassed the target, set by the central bank in its monetary policy, for the January-June period of the outgoing fiscal year (FY), 2015-16.
The private sector credit growth has already reached 15.59 per cent in April on a year-on-year basis from 15.16 per cent in March 2016. The credit growth was 15.11 per cent in February.
"It may exceed 16 per cent by the end of this month," BB chief economist Biru Pasksha Paul said earlier.
The central bank projected that the private sector credit would grow at 14.8 per cent in June 2016 from 13.8 per cent in December 2015.
The total outstanding loans with the private sector rose to BDT 6447.34 billion in April 2016 from BDT 5577.76 billion in the same month of 2015. It was BDT 6364.42 billion in March 2016.
BBN/SSR/AD