MANILA, Philippines — The total outstanding loans of commercial banks went up by 19.3 percent at the end of 2011, higher than 2010 growth of 8.9 percent and reflecting a robust growth in the real sector.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reported that bank loans amounted to P2.766-trillion net of banks’ reverse repurchase (RRP) by end-December and including RRPs, lending totaled P2.990 trillion.

“In the midst of weaker global economic prospects, robust credit growth should provide adequate support to domestic production, investment, and spending,” said the BSP in a statement. “(The) BSP will continue to assess conditions in the financial system to ensure that monetary policy settings remain consistent with the price stability objective as well as supportive of domestic economic growth.”

The end-December lending growth is however slower compared to November’s 22.5 percent. Including RRPs, lending decreased by 16.4 percent from end-November’s 19.3 percent.

BSP noted that the loans for production activities, bulk of the total loan portfolio, went up by 20.1 percent in December to P2.541 trillion while consumer loans grew 17.3 percent to P225.566 billion. Both the production loans and consumer loans had a slower pace of growth in December compared to November.

For the consumer loans, the BSP said that the month-on-month decline was due mainly to the continued slowdown in credit card lending.

The expansion of production loans, in the meantime, was boosted by higher loans to the wholesale and retail trade which increased by 57.8 percent to P403.082 billion. Manufacturing loans also grew by 32.1 percent to P510.911 billion while electricity/gas/water and real estate/rending/business services loans increased by 54.5 percent and 25.2 percent respectively to P257.413 billion and P445.928 billion.

Based on BSP data, loans to financial intermediation grew by 16.8 percent to P225.599 billion while construction and mining/quarrying loans went up by 22.3 percent and 60.1 percent to P35.397 billion and P25.263 billion.

The BSP in another report on banks’ credit standards said that in the last three months of 2011, they noted that lending standards remained unchanged and that there was no tightening of credit standards for loans to both households and enterprises. This seemed to reflect the industry’s steady outlook on the economy despite a lower-than-expected end-2011 gross domestic product growth.