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The Philippine Savings Bank is likely to post
moderate earnings growth this year owing to declining demand for
housing loans.
In a press briefing, Pascual
Garcia, PSBank president, said the bank’s profits may grow
moderately by 15 percent this year from P1.018 billion last year.
This will be driven primarily by
lower demand for consumer loans, consisting of housing, auto, small
businesses, and personal loans.
Consumer loans are expected to
grow 17 percent this year, lower than 24 percent last year, as
housing loans showed weak demand from middle-income market,
particularly overseas Filipino workers.
“The first quarter performance
is slightly weaker than that of the first quarter last year,”
Garcia said. “We’re not as strong as [we were] last year. The
banks have become very competitive [in providing consumer loans],”
he added.
Moreover, slower demand in real
loans was attributed to strong peso, high inflation and world
economic slowdown. The peso will continue to appreciate on the back
of strong remittances.
The pickup in real-estate lending
was driven mainly by OFWs as mortgage loan rates dropped to an
affordable rate of 8 percent.
--MARICEL E. BURGONIO
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