Commercial banks’ loans and advances in 2022 was $7.6 billion, states the Reserve Bank of Fiji’s 2022 annual report that was tabled in Parliament on Monday.
The RBF said the commercial banking industry was able to withstand the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, having maintained satisfactory levels of capital, earnings, liquidity, and marginal asset quality position.
“Commercial banks’ loans and advances grew by 6.2 per cent to $7.6b, a turnaround from the prior two years of consecutive contractions, owed to the impact of the pandemic on the Fijian economy,” states the report.
“The sectors that contributed to the lending growth were mainly the private sector business entities and public enterprises.
“The concentration of loans remained relatively unchanged from 30 June 2021, as private individuals accounted for 28.6 per cent of the commercial banks’ lending portfolio, followed by wholesale, retail, hotels and restaurants sector (20.2 per cent) and the real estate sector (18.7 per cent).
“The commercial banks’ combined loans in arrears continued to remain concentrated in the one to three months category, however reporting a decline by 14.3 per cent to $532.0 million over the year.
“In terms of problem loans, the dominant sectors comprised private individuals (25.7 per cent), wholesale, retail, hotels & restaurants (24.7 per cent), real estate (18.5 per cent), transport & storage (14.2 per cent), building & construction (8.5 per cent) and manufacturing (5.1 per cent).”
