
Housing loans up 22.5%
Bank loans growth jumped from 12.2% yoy in September to 13.8% yoy in October. According to OCBC, the increase was buoyed by both business (10.1%yoy and 0.8%mom) and consumer loans (18.1%yoy and 1.8%mom), especially housing/bridging loans (22.5%yoy and 2.1% mom).
The slowdown in recent new private residential property transactions may only start to feed into the loans growth data in H1 2011. Moderation in loans growth from 12% in Q4 2010 to around 5%yoy in 2011 is to be expected.