Consumer loans and lending to the construction sector reached record levels last month, reflecting confidence in the nation’s economy and rebounding demand from returning businesses for land to build factories, monthly data released by the central bank on Thursday last week showed.
Consumer loans hit NT$8.469 trillion (US$272.4 billion), up NT$48 billion, or 0.58 percent, from the previous month, led mainly by mortgages, the data showed.
Last month’s figures were NT$376 billion, or 4.65 percent, more than the NT$8.093 trillion from a year earlier, the data showed.
The central bank defines consumer loans as including housing loans, loans for home renovations and vehicles, revolving credit for credit cards and labor welfare loans.
Housing loans grew NT$43 billion, or 0.61 percent, from the previous month to NT$7.143 trillion, which was NT$359 billion, or 5.29 percent, more than a year earlier, the bank’s tallies showed.
The annual growth was the largest increase in eight years, which suggests that the real-estate market remains on course for steady growth, the bank said.
“Housing loans have seen an annual increase of about 5 percent every month for the past two years, indicating that the market is on a solid footing,” the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister newspaper) quoted an unnamed central bank official as saying on Friday.
Construction loans, which are indicative of the construction sector’s attitude toward the market, also grew for a fourth straight month to a record NT$1.953 trillion last month, increasing 1.51 percent month-on-month.
On an annual basis, construction loans grew 10.15 percent last month, the biggest annual increase since September 2012, which the central bank said indicates that construction firms are upbeat about the market as firms seek land and factories, while the residential housing market continues a steady recovery, the Liberty Times reported.
The increases in consumer and construction loans were also indicated in surveys released last week by Cathay Financial Holding Co (國泰金控) and the National Development Council, which showed that the public and businesses appear more upbeat about the economic climate now and for the next six months.
A business climate survey by Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (台灣經濟研究院), also released last week, indicated that sentiment in the construction sector continued to increase last month, up 4.34 percentage points to 97.81 percent from a month earlier.
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