Bank Financing for Cars Plunges for 17th Straight Month

Auto-financing plunged 17th consecutive month in November 2023, with the total car loan amount falling by 2.6 percent month-on-month to Rs. 257 billion from Rs. 264 billion in October. Data from the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) suggests that auto financing stood at Rs. 340 billion in November 2022 and has since fallen by 24.4 percent or Rs. 83 billion. Since its peak of Rs. 368 billion in June 2022, car financing has plummeted by Rs. 111 billion during the period in review. Consumer financing for house building clocked in at Rs. 207 billion by the end of November 2023, unchanged from the previous month but down 3.2 percent YoY compared to Rs. 214 billion in the same period last year. Personal loans on credit cards surged by 27.3 percent YoY to Rs. 108 billion in November. Loans under this category showed a slight increase of 2.9 percent MoM from Rs. 105 billion recorded last month. Overall credit issued to end-users (consumer financing) fell to Rs. 825 billion in November, an 8.5 percent YoY and 0.5 percent MoM decrease. Outstanding credit to the private sector declined by 0.2 percent YoY to Rs. 8.19 trillion. Loans to the private sector (Business) clocked in at Rs. 7.05 trillion.