‘Lackluster’ bank lending seen despite RRR cut

BANK-LENDING growth would remain “lackluster” despite the additional liquidity in the financial system resulting from the recent reduction in lenders’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR), an economist said on Wednesday.

“We may continue to see bank lending [register] lackluster growth despite successive reductions to [the] RRR as cash infusions simply revert to the national government’s coffers,” ING Bank Manila’s senior economist Nicholas Antonio Mapa said in a report.