INCREASED GOVERNMENT borrowing is gobbling up a growing share of the loan market, according to Bank of Jamaica (BoJ) figures.
Total government borrowing amounted to $8.9 billion in July of last year, according to the BoJ's latest monthly analysis of commercial bank loans and advances. This took up 20.7 per cent of the $43.1 billion loaned by commercial banks that month.
By July of this year, borrowing by government had soared 90.4 per cent to $17 billion. This took up 28.3 per cent of the $60.1 billion loaned by commercial banks that month.
Overall commercial bank lending increased 39.7 per cent between July last year and July this year. The $8.1 billion increase in borrowing by government amounted to 47.2 per cent of the $17.1 billion increase in overall commercial bank lending.
Central government borrowing increased $1.9 billion to $5.1 billion and local government borrowing shot up from zero to $407 million from July last year to July this year. In the same period, borrowing by selected public entities fell by $.3 billion to $4.4 billion, but the biggest increase by far was in other public entities where lending increased from $1 billion to $7.5 billion.
