Credit growth increases in February

| Tuesday April 3, 2007 00:00

The rate of increase is above the Bank of Botswana credit growth target range for 2007 of 11-14 percent.

The rise in credit growth was due to an increase in the annual growth of credit to the household sector, which rose from 17.6 percent in January to 19.9 percent in February. On a monthly basis, credit to this sector increased by 1.0 percent compared to 1.9 percent the previous month.

A large part of the increase in household credit arose from the acquisition by one of the commercial banks of the assets of a micro-finance company and the subsequent reclassification of its existing loans, which were mainly to households.

The annual growth in credit to the business sector slowed to 17.1 percent from 19.3 percent in January. Month-on-month, credit to this sector increased by 1.6 percent compared to a decrease of 3.1 in January. The share of credit to household sector in overall credit fell slightly to 58.6 percent from 58.7 percent in January.