Cambodia's banking industry reports 8 pct lending growth in Q1

Cambodia's banking industry reports 8 pct lending growth in Q1

Loan demands from Cambodia's banking industry had surged by 8% in the first three months of this year thanks to growing economy and business activities, a central bank's senior official said Monday.

As of March 2012, the kingdom's 30 commercial banks had lent a total of about 4.69 billion U.S. dollars, an increase of 8% from 4.32 billion U.S. dollars at the end of last year, Nguon Sokha, director general of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC), said, citing the NBC's data.

She said most of the loans went to the sectors of trades, agriculture, manufacturing industry, and hotels and tourism.

"Economic situation in the first quarter of this year looks better; we see all sectors driven the economic growth including garment exports, tourism, and foreign direct investment are on the rise," she told Xinhua over telephone. "More business activities bring more loan demands."

On the deposit side, she said, the customers' deposits at the banks had increased by 12% to 5.26 billion U.S. dollars by the end of March this year from 4.7 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2011.

xinhua