Consumer financing clocks in at Rs11.4bln

ISLAMABAD: The consumer financing reported a cumulative flow of Rs11.4 billion in the first half of the financial year 2015/16 as compared to Rs12.3 billion during the same period of the last year, the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said.

The SBP said there was a noticeable improvement in the second quarter of the year when credit to consumers grew Rs16.3 billion as compared to just Rs6.8 billion in second quarter of fiscal year 2014/15.

Auto financing rose Rs13.3 billion throughout the first half of the current fiscal year as compared to Rs7.4 billion during the corresponding period of the last year.

Similarly, house building loans showed a considerable improvement, rising Rs2.7 billion in the first half as against Rs0.2 billion in the same period of the last year.

Preliminary data suggest that auto financing started to benefit the sales of local car assemblers, which are expected to post a healthy rise in the current year.  There was a Rs7 billion rise in personal loans during the second quarter of the current fiscal year. Meanwhile credit to manufacturing sector showed a higher growth of 9.6 percent during the period under review as compared to seven percent a year earlier.

The main beneficiaries were textile and chemical sectors, the SBP’s report said.  Loans to textile witnessed a net increase of Rs 82.6 billion in the first half as compared to Rs57.7 billion a year ago.