Malaysian banks' loan growth slows to 6.4% in March 2016

On an annualized basis, growth was 1.2%.

Maybank Kim Eng reports that industry loan growth moderated most notably in March 2016, slowing to just 6.4% YoY from 7.4% YoY end-Feb 2016. Growth on an annualized basis was just 1.2%. Household (HH) loan growth slowed to just 6.4% YoY in Mar 2016 from 7.0% YoY in Feb 2016 (annualized growth was just 3.5% in Mar 2016) while non-HH loan growth slowed to 6.5% YoY from 8.0% YoY (and contracted 1.8% on an annualized basis).

"Our industry loan growth forecast stands at 6.5% for 2016 (+7.9% in 2015), premised on a further slowdown in HH loan growth to 6.1% (+7.7% in 2015) and non-HH loan growth to 7.0% (+8.0% in 2015). The risk to our forecast is to the downside if current trends persist over the next few months."

The only HH segment to sustain relatively higher growth momentum was personal loans, which grew 7.1% YoY end-Mar 2016 versus 6.1% YoY end-Feb.