Posted on August, 27, 2019 at 10:31 am
AGRICULTURE sector has continued to attract commercial lenders after recording 40.6 per cent annual growth rates of bank’s credit, higher than that extended to other major economic activities in the year ending June, the Bank of Tanzania (BoT), monthly economic review July has stated.
In the same period under review, the BoT report shows that the composition of bank’s outstanding credit to agriculture sector, that employs around 70 per cent of the country’s workforce, was 8.7 per cent remaining the same as the previous period.
The growth rates was however, slightly lower compared to 47.2 per cent and 50.7 per cent in the years ending May and April, respectively.
Other sectors namely mining and quarrying registered 28.4 per cent, personal 17.4 per cent, manufacturing 14.5 per cent, building and construction -0.1 per cent, trade -4.2 per cent, transport and communication -4.5 per cent and hotels and restaurants -11.2 per cent.
During the period, total domestic credit to the private sector and central government by the banking system namely BoT and commercial banks grew at an annual rate of 17.3 percent in June 2019 compared with1.5 percent in the year ending June 2018, driven by both central government and the private sector credit.
Credit to the private sector grew by 7.6 per cent compared with 4.0 percent partly reflecting the impact of accommodative monetary policy and implementation of several initiatives to improve business-enabling environment and reduction of nonperforming loans.
During the year ending June 2019, growth in credit was recorded in most major economic activities where personal-related undertakings and trade activities remained the major beneficiaries of loans by banks, accounting for 29.6 percent and 18.1 percent of outstanding credit, respectively.
Source: Daily News