Foreign currency-denominated loans granted by banks grew 2.7 percent in the third quarter
from the second quarter, as disbursements outpaced repayments, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr. said over the weekend.
Espenilla said that as of end-September 2018, outstanding loans granted by foreign currency deposit units of banks stood at $16.1 billion, higher by $419 million from the end-June 2018 level of $15.7 billion.
“Year-on-year, a growth in the portfolio of $1.1 billion [from the end-September 2017 level of $15 billion] was noted as disbursements outpaced repayments,” Espenilla said in a statement.
“The maturity mix of the loan portfolio remained biased towards medium- to long-term debt [or those payable over a term of more than one year], which represented 76.7 percent of total, higher than the previous year’s 75.3 percent,” he said.
The bulk of outstanding loans went to different resident industries, such as towing, tanker, trucking and forwarding (24.5 percent); merchandise and service exporters (19.6 percent); public utility firms (9.5 percent); and producers/manufacturers, including oil companies (3.7 percent).
