Indonesia: Bankers see stronger consumer lending in 2018: PwC

• Feb 28, 2018

Bankers are banking on stronger consumer lending to take the lead in an otherwise slow year, according to a PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) Indonesia survey published Tuesday. 

The PwC survey involved 65 banking executives from 49 banks, and showed that 71 percent of respondents believed consumer lending would grow more than 10 percent, considerably higher than 57 percent of respondents in 2017.

Bankers were more optimistic about the consumer lending performance this year, as Indonesians’ purchasing power was on an upward trend, the advisor to PwC Indonesia, Siew Chan-Cheong, told The Jakarta Post on Tuesday.   

“I think the overall trend is that the population is getting richer, per capita income is on an upward trend, and in the long run, purchasing power is also on an upward trend, which is an attractive market for banks and many other businesses,” he said.

“Indonesians still require more lending in order to drive more economic growth,” Siew added.

Most respondents projected that the mortgage sector, followed by credit cards and other consumption lending such as car loans and micro loans, would boost consumer lending.

As for overall loan growth, 38 percent of respondents projected growth of 10 percent to 15 percent, compared to 27 percent of respondents last year.

The survey also showed that fewer banks had targeted growth of more than 20 percent. Based on the response, PwC estimated that overall lending growth would fall between 2-3 percentage points.

“I think they are trying to be conservative this year,” Siew said, suggesting that this was because of bankers’ experience the previous year. (roi/bbn)

Source: http://www.thejakartapost.com/news/2018/02/28/bankers-see-stronger-consumer-lending-in-2018-pwc.html