In an economy that has shown some growth but is still weak, the Trinidad & Tobago Central Bank stated recently that “overall private sector credit growth though slow, has been relatively steady thus far in 2013”.
On a year-on-year basis, private sector credit grew by 3.0 per cent in July 2013 compared with just over 2 ½ per cent in June 2013. The growth is below the rate of inflation for the year to August. Consumer lending continued to strengthen, increasing by almost 6½ per cent (year-on-year) in July from 6.2 per cent in June 2013. On the other hand, business loans contracted for the eighth consecutive month, falling by 5.0 per cent in July 2013. Real estate mortgage loans, however, maintained strong double digit growth.
Large net domestic fiscal injections along with weak credit demand contributed to a rapid build-up of liquidity levels in the financial system over the past few months. Commercial banks’ excess reserves at the Central Bank rose from a daily average of $5.4 billion in July 2013 to a daily average of $6.3 billion in August, the Central Bank stated.
Excess reserves increased even further to a record daily average of $8.3 billion over the first three weeks of September. While the $1 billion Central Government treasury bond offered in early August 2013 was undersubscribed, the allotment of almost $560 million helped to reduce some of the excess liquidity. Central Bank open market operations and sales of the foreign exchange also removed some of the excess liquidity from the system in July-September 2013.
The substantial expansion in liquidity has kept short-term, domestic treasury rates at record low levels, with the discount rate on 3-month treasury bills holding at 0.14 per cent in the final week of September 2013.
Related posts | T&T economy growing | T&T Inflation picks up | IMF predicts 1.5% growth for T&T