Credit Growth Down In March

Jakarta, May 14 (Antara) - Indonesia`s bank credits grew at a slower pace to 22.2 percent in March 2013 on a domestic economic slowdown, according to the central bank. Despite slowing down, working capital and investment credits grew highly 23.7 percent and 23.2 percent year-on-year respectively, Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Darmin Nasution said in a press conference following a meeting of BI board of governors here on Tuesday. Consumer credits meanwhile grew 18.9 percent year-on-year. The banking industry`s solid performance was reflected by high capital adequacy ratio (CAR) which reached 18.9 percent, well above the minimum limit of 8 percent and low gross non-performing loans (NPLs) which reached 1.97 percent in March, he said. He said the bank credit growth is still consistent with national economic growth. Looking ahead, Bank Indonesia believed that the financial system stability will remain manageable thanks to its intermediary function amidst a slowdown in national economic performance, he said. Bank Indonesia has predicted that the second-quarter national economy will grow at a slower pace than projected earlier, and so will the economic growth throughout this year. The economy is estimated to have expanded 6.02 percent in the first quarter against 6.11 percent a quarter earlier or lower than the central bank`s forecast of 6.2 percent, he said. The central bank has predicted the economic growth in the second quarter will fall short of the previous forecast and will not be much different from the first-quarter growth.