Agri credit disbursement surges to Rs 440b

The local banks disbursed an amount of Rs 439.8 billion in last 11 months or 88 per cent higher than the last fiscal year, the data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) said on Monday.

A banker said that overall target of Rs 500 billion was set by the SBP for this year and the banks would achieve this target by the end of June this year.

During current fiscal year (July- May 2015) the banks have disbursed Rs 439.8 billion which is 88 per cent of the overall annual target of Rs 500 billion and 31.4 per cent higher than disbursement of Rs 334.7 billion made during the corresponding period last year.

The outstanding portfolio of agricultural loans has also surged by Rs 43 billion or 15.5 per cent i.e. from Rs 277.1 billion to Rs 320.1 billion at end May 2015 as compared to same period last year.

The performance of five major banks as a group remained satisfactory as they have disbursed Rs 229.3 billion or 90.8 per cent of their annual target and two specialized banks (ZTBL & PPCBL) disbursed Rs 86.8 billion or 85.4 per cent of their annual targets of Rs 101.5 billion.

As many as 15 domestic private banks collectively disbursed Rs 91.2 billion or 78.9 per cent against their target of Rs 115.6 billion. Eight Microfinance banks have disbursed Rs 27.8 billion or 98.8 per cent of their annual targets.

It is pertinent to mention that the four Islamic banks as a group have already surpassed their annual targets by disbursing Rs 4.7 billion against the target of Rs 2.3 billion during the period under review.

The group-wise performance of banks during the period (Jul- May 2015) is summarized below.

Amongst the five major banks, HBL has achieved 98.8 per cent of its annual target, ABL achieved 95.6 per cent, MCB 91.1 per cent, UBL 85.1 per cent while NBP could achieve 84.1 per cent of its individual annual target.

Under the specialised banks category, ZTBL disbursed Rs 78.7 billion or 87.4 per cent against its target of Rs 90.0 billion while PPCBL disbursed Rs 8.1 billion; 70.4 per cent against its target of Rs 11.5 billion during the period under review.

Within Fifteen Domestic Private Banks, Faysal Bank has achieved 95.1 per cent, Sindh bank achieved 73.6 per cent, Bank Alfalah 72.7 per cent, however Bank of Khyber, Standard Chartered Bank and JS Bank have surpassed their annual targets of Rs 5.0 billion, Rs 2.5 billion and Rs 0.5 billion respectively during the period.