Bank credit recorded a sharp acceleration of 5.3% in 2019, bringing its ratio to gross domestic product (GDP) to 79.7% after 78.5% a year earlier, says Bank Al-Maghrib (BAM).
This increase reflects an improvement in the growth of loans to the non-financial sector from 3.1% to 5.5% and, to a lesser extent, that of loans to financial companies from 4% to 4.4%, underlines the central bank. in its annual report on the economic, monetary and financial situation for the 2019 financial year.
For its part, the increase in bank credit to the non-financial sector is essentially the result of a notable increase in loans to private companies, explains BAM, noting that the latter strengthened by 7.3% after 0.5% a year earlier. , with expansions of 9.7%, after 2.4%, in cash facilities, 6% in equipment loans and 7.5% in property development.
In contrast, loans to public enterprises fell by 0.8% with declines of 0.5% for equipment loans and 0.2% for those to treasury.
As for loans granted to individual entrepreneurs, they fell by 2.1% after an increase of 3.4%, the result of decreases of 25.3% in loans to property development and of 5.4% in liquidity facilities after respective expansions of 15.9% and 18.6%, said the same source, adding that loans to equipment posted an increase of 4.6%.
For loans to individuals, they increased by 5.1% after 6%, with notably decelerations from 6.3% to 4.2% for residential loans and from 6.4% to 4.9% for consumer loans.
The report also shows that the ratio of bad debts to bank credit almost stabilized for the third consecutive year at 7.6%, with a decline to 10.9% for private companies and an increase to 8.5. % for households.
By branch of activity, aid granted to companies in the “Transport and communications” and “Trade, automobile repairs and household goods” sectors rebounded by 9.8% and 7.3% respectively.
Likewise, accelerations were recorded for “Extractive industries” from 8.8% to 25.8% and to a lesser extent for “Building and public works” from 1.2% to 1.3%, while for “Electricity, gas and water”, the decline eased from 6% to 3.3%. With regard to loans granted to the non-financial sector by financial companies other than banks, they increased by 4% to 151.9 billion dirhams (MMDH), notes BAM, noting that those distributed by finance companies have rose 5.7% to MAD 119.2 billion. At the same time, loans granted by micro-credit associations increased by 9% to MAD 7.4 billion, while those granted by offshore banks decreased by 13.4% to MAD 12 billion.
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