Private sector borrowing up by 65pc in December.

KARACHI -- Private sector borrowing from banks - said to be the most important macro indicator - went up sharply by over 65 per cent in December 2020, latest data issued by the State Bank (SBP) shows.

Private sector borrowed Rs215.5 billion from banks since July to Jan 8, 2020-21 compared to Rs130.2bn in the same period last year amid accelerated economic activities. The rebound in December borrowings emerged as the turning point against the sharp decline - by 88pc - witnessed in the previous five months of the current fiscal year compared to the same period in FY20.

In its monetary policy issued on Friday, the SBP said it expects growth rate slightly above 2pc despite upside risks.

Some other macro indictors also reflect the sudden jump in the borrowing from banks.

The SBP governor recently said that economic recovery was under way since July and has strengthened in recent months.

Large-scale manufacturing (LSM) grew by 7.4pc in October and 14.5pc in November.

The available data does not show which sectors were buying higher money from the banks, but most of the it went for working capital.

Another set of SBP data showed that manufacturing sector's borrowing reached Rs1,284.9bn at the end of November FY21.

Manufacturing recovery is also beAcoming more broad-based, with 12 out of 15 sub-sectors registering positive growth, the Acentral bank said.

One of the reasons for higher borrowing by the private sector was the drastic cut in interest rate while banks also received record growth in their deposits. The SBP slashed interest by 6.25 percentage points to 7pc from March to June 2020, thereby encouraging the private sector to get benefit of the situation arising out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

The banking sector deposits in 12 months increased by 20pc in October 2020 year-on-year basis reflecting high liquidity in the banking system. This forced banks to utilise...