Banking Loans Grow by 30 Percent
Thursday, 24 April, 2008 | 16:54 WIB

TEMPO Interactive, Jakarta: Bank Indonesia (BI) has recorded that banking loans up until the first quarter of 2008 have grown by 30 percent.

This rate is higher when compared to the targeted loans of 24 percent, and total disbursed loans amounted to more than Rp1,100 trillion.

Halim Alamsyah, BI Director of Banking Research and Development, said that loan disbursement during the first quarter of 2008 was dominated by investment and working capital loans.

He said he was optimistic that up until the end of 2008, loan growth would meet the target set, even though the market situation was not conducive.

His optimism is supported by the many projects that are to be realized this year.

BI will also boost banking to disburse loans to stimulate the real sector by, among others, improving the quality of credit risk management to prevent nonperforming loans (NPLs) from increasing.

According to Halim, the NPL risk is decreasing.

Nonetheless, should the government find no solution to the effects of the oil price increase, primary needs and real sector problems, then there would be a chance that the credit risk ratio increases.

Up until February, banking loans went up by 1.4 percent to Rp1,045.9 trillion.

In addition, collectible third party funds increased as well to Rp1,474.5 trillion, a rise of 0.2 percent compared to the January figure of Rp1,471.2 trillion.

Eko Nopiansyah