Malaysian banks' loan growth hits 5.8% in August

Both household and non-household loans showed positive growth.

Analysts see some glimmer of hope as loan growth amongst Malaysian banks gathered pace in August, rising 5.8% YoY versus 5.6% YoY in July, with household (HH) loan growth stable at 5% (5% in July) and non-HH loan growth at 6.8% (6.3% in July).

"Annualised loan growth improved to 3.5% in August (3.1% in July) with HH loan growth higher at 4.1% (3.9% in July) and non-HH loan growth improving to 2.8% from 2.2% in July," said Maybank Kim Eng.

Here's more from the brokerage firm:

On the household front, YoY growth has continued to hold up at the 5% mark, with a pick-up in share margin financing, auto HP, personal loans and credit cards, compensating for mildly weaker lending to residential property (+8.8% YoY in Aug 2017) and stable loan growth to commercial property (+3.7% YoY).

On the non-HH front, working capital loan growth recovered to above 7%, coming in at 7.2% YoY in August versus 6.9% YoY in July. There was a spike in lending to utilities during the month, as well as to the construction sector, mitigated in part by slower lending to real property development.