The total outstanding balance of consumer credit in Cambodia continued to steadily increase, reaching $7.16 billion by the end of June – a 6.8 per cent increase from the first quarter – according to a Credit Bureau Cambodia (CBC) report released last week.
The number of consumer loan accounts increased by 5.03 per cent quarter-on-quarter, bringing the total number of accounts to 1.19 million, equal to 37.67 per cent of total individual accounts in the market, said the report.
As of June, non-performing loans after 30 days (NPL 30) fell to 1.19 per cent from 1.24 per cent at the end of March, it said.
The $7.16 billion in outstanding consumer credit accounted for roughly 30.22 per cent of the total outstanding balance of individual loans in the market.
However, the report said, the number of customers applying for consumer credit in its three forms – personal finance, credit cards and mortgages – all dropped 19.29 per cent.
The report said the biggest drop was in mortgage applications, which fell by 36 per cent quarter-on-quarter, with the coastal regions seeing the sharpest drop at 49 per cent.
Applications for credit cards fell by nine per cent and personal finance applications shrank 18 per cent, it said.
CBC CEO Oeur Sothearoath said this quarter was not entirely different from previous years, in which consumer credit applications consistently dropped in the second quarter.
“However, compared to the same period in 2018, the number of applications increased by 9.03 per cent this quarter,” he said.
Sothearoath said the number of consumer credit accounts has grown steadily since last year at between five and seven per cent each quarter, with the outstanding balance increasing at between six and eight per cent.
Acleda Bank Plc president and CEO In Channy attributed the decline in the number of consumer credit applications during the second quarter to a decline in consumer spending.
“The number of consumer credit applications may have fallen, but the balance has grown largely,” he said.
