Bangladesh Bank has said that in the last 15 years, the loan growth in November was the lowest, at 9.87 percent.
Economists have called the situation worrying. As per the Bangladesh Bank report, the loan growth was 9.87 percent at the end of November, which was 10.04 percent in October.
This means that compared to the earlier month, growth fell by 0.17 percent, which is 4 percent lower than the target fixed by Bangladesh Bank.
Till December, target was fixed at 13.2 percent. Information of the government’s economic survey states that earlier, in 2003 and 2004, loan growth fell to 7 percent.
In 2005, this rose to 12 percent. After that, loan growth never fell to a single digit.
In March, 2011, loan growth rose to 29.13 percent.
Executive director of South Asian Network on Economic Modeling, Selim Raihan, has called the loan growth disconcerting.
This was not created in a day; crisis has taken shape in several sectors of the economy; there has not been investment at the private sector for a long time and those who need loans are not getting them. Many are not taking loans since the rate of interest is high, said Selim Raihan.
“In such a situation, there is uncertainty in the banking sector.”
Former finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam, said: “It’s worrying that loan growth has fallen below 10 percent, which is far less than the target of the currency policy.”
Latest information of the Bangladesh Bank says, in the July-October period of the running year, the import of capital machinery has fallen by 10 percent and import of industrial raw materials has fallen by 20 percent.
Bangladesh Bank information says that for two years, loan situation has been deteriorating;
To meet the budget deficit, the government was supposed to take a loan of Tk 473.64 billion but within six months, the government has taken Tk 447.76 billion.