Pakistan Farm Credit soars to $2 billion

Farm sector credit soars to Rs120.4bn or $ 2 billion

Pakistan banking sector development soars

Friday, March 21, 2008By our correspondentKARACHI: The disbursement of credit to the agriculture sector by commercial and specialised banks showed a growth of 30.46 per cent year-on-year during the first eight months (July 07-February 08) of the current fiscal year. According to the State Bank of Pakistan, banks disbursed Rs120.442 billion to the agriculture sector during July to February as compared to Rs92.319 billion in the same period last year, showing an absolute increase of Rs28.123 billion. Overall credit disbursement by five major commercial banks including
Allied Bank Ltd (ABL),
Habib Bank Ltd (HBL),
MCB Bank,
National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and
United Bank Ltd (UBL) stood at Rs58.026 billion during July-February 2007-08, compared with Rs43.424 billion during the corresponding period of last year, depicting an increase of Rs14.602 billion or 33.62 per cent.
Zarai Taraqiati Bank Ltd (ZTBL), the largest specialized bank, disbursed Rs33.012 billion in July-February period, compared with Rs30.745 billion in corresponding period of last year, while disbursement by
Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank Ltd
(PPCBL) recorded at Rs3.873 billion, compared with Rs4.824 billion last year. Besides, 14 domestic private banks (DPBs) also loaned a combined Rs25.530 billion during July-February period, up 91.60 per cent against Rs13.324 billion disbursed the last year. SBP had set an indicative target of Rs200 billion for the current fiscal year, up from Rs160 billion in the last fiscal year, showing an increase of Rs40 billion. During the last fiscal year, commercial and specialized banks had disbursed a total Rs168.3 billion to the agriculture sector.