KARACHI: Agriculture credit disbursement by banks increased by 31.40 per cent to Rs439.8 billion during the first 11 months (July-May) of the outgoing fiscal year as compared to Rs334.7bn in the same period last year.
The banks so far achieved 88 per cent of their combined target of Rs500bn set for 2014-15, said the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) on Monday.
The outstanding portfolio of agriculture loans also surged by 15.52pc (Rs43bn) to Rs320.1bn from Rs277.1bn in the same period last year.
The SBP said that the performance of five major banks as a group remained satisfactory, as they disbursed Rs229.3bn (90.8pc) of their annual target and two specialised banks (ZTBL and PPCBL) disbursed Rs86.8bn (85.4pc) of their combined target of Rs101.5bn.
Fifteen domestic private banks collectively disbursed Rs91.2bn against their target of Rs115.6bn. Eight microfinance banks disbursed Rs27.8bn (98.8pc) of their target.
Four Islamic banks as a group have already surpassed their annual target by disbursing Rs4.7bn against the target of Rs2.3bn during the period under review.
Amongst the five major banks, HBL achieved 98.8pc of its annual target, ABL 95.6pc, MCB 91pc, UBL 85pc, while NBP could achieve 84pc of its individual annual target.
Under the specialised banks, ZTBL disbursed Rs78.7bn (87.4pc) against its target of Rs90bn, while PPCBL disbursed Rs8.1bn against its target of Rs11.5bn during the period under review.
Within fifteen domestic private banks, Faysal Bank achieved 95pc, Sindh bank 73.6pc, Bank Alfalah 72.7pc; however, Bank of Khyber, Standard Chartered and JS Bank have surpassed their annual targets of Rs5bn, Rs2.5bn and Rs0.5bn, respectively during the period.
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