Drops by 3.64pc in 9 months
The industrial term loan disbursement registered a negative growth of 3.64 per cent in the first nine months of the current financial year 2013-14 compared with that of 27.75 per cent growth in the corresponding period of the FY13 due to the political unrest.
Bangladesh Bank officials told New Age on Sunday that the businesspeople had earlier adopted a ‘wait and see’ approach to expand their new industrial units due to the political unrest over the process of holding general elections on January 5 which put an adverse impact on the industrial sector.
According to the BB data released on Sunday, scheduled banks and non-bank financial institutions disbursed Tk 30,848.95 crore as industrial term loans in July-March of the FY14 against Tk 32,015.04 crore during the same period of the FY13.
The industrial term loan disbursement in July-March of the FY12 was Tk 25,059.89 crore.
Four state-owned commercial banks — Sonali, Janata, Agrani and Rupali — and four specialised banks — Bangladesh Krishi Bank, Rajshahi Krishi Unnayan Bank, Bangladesh Development Bank and BASIC Bank — disbursed Tk 1,013.17 crore and Tk 1,062 crore respectively as industrial term loans in the first nine months of the FY14 against Tk 5,433 crore and Tk 1,252 crore during the same period of the FY13.
The industrial term loan disbursement by the foreign banks also decreased to Tk 976.70 crore in the first nine months of the FY14 from Tk 1,312.14 crore in the corresponding period of the FY13.
The term loan disbursement by the private commercial banks, however, increased to Tk 23,631.88 crore in July-March of the FY14 from Tk 20,602 crore during the same period a financial year ago.
A credit is treated as term loan which tenure crosses one year while the other with less than one year of tenure is treated as working capital, said a BB official.
The businesspeople usually receive the industrial term loan to set up new industrial units or expand their existing industrial units, he said.
The country’s industrialisation process has recently faced a stagnant situation due to the political unrest resulting that the term loan disbursement posted the negative growth in the first nine months of the FY14, he said.
The industrial term loan disbursement may decline further in the current quarter (April-June) of the FY14 if the present political uncertainty persists, he said.
Besides, a number of industries have been facing production crisis for a long due to the prevailing power crisis and gas shortage.
‘For this reason, the entrepreneurs have failed to expand their business. As a result, they are reluctant to apply for bank loans’, he said.
Such type of slow pace in industrial term loan disbursement will also impact negatively on the GDP growth, he said.
The BB data, however, showed that the overall industrial loan disbursement had posted a 12.14 per cent growth in July- March of the FY14 compared with that of 34.98 per cent growth in the corresponding period of the FY13 due to a higher growth in the working capital.
Banks and NBFIs disbursed Tk 1,22,356.87 crore as industrial loans in July-March of the FY14 against Tk 1,09,114 crore during the same period of the FY13. The industrial loan disbursement in July-March of the FY12 was Tk 81,253.46 crore.
-With New Age input
