The growth rate of bank loans granted to individuals and businesses fell sharply in 2018. The tightening of the monetary policy of the Central Bank of Tunisia (BCT) has weighed on it.
For the year 2018 as a whole, the money supply (M3) rose by 9.8% on average year-on-year against + 8.8% in 2017.
This rise is mainly attributed to the growth of the loan to the economy by + 11.2% (+ 10.9% in 2017) and net claims on the state by + 13.9% (+ 16.2% in 2017), the BCT said in its recent Note on the economic and monetary developments.
On the other hand, net claims on abroad continued to decline.
The Note pointed out that, over the recent period, the money supply experienced a sharp deceleration, which was accentuated in December (+ 5.6%, year on year, against + 7.8% in November and 12.3% in March 2018), reflecting the tightening of monetary policy on the one hand and the effect of the new macro-prudential measure (credit / deposit ratio) on the other hand.
This deceleration is mainly due to the slowdown in the economy and net claims on the state, according to the BCT.
Moreover, it appears that loans to the economy ended the year 2018 with growth of + 8.3% against + 12.9% a year earlier.
This trend is marked by the joint decline in the growth rate of loans granted to individuals (5.3% vs. 10.9% in 2017) and those granted to professionals (10.2% vs. 14.6% in 2017).
The BCT notes that most of the deceleration of loans to professionals concerned medium and long-term loans.
