PHNOM PENH, Feb. 6 (Xinhua) -- Loan demands from Cambodia's banking industry had surged by 20.1 percent in 2018 thanks to the growing business activities in trade, real estate and construction, agriculture, and manufacturing, said a central bank's annual report on Wednesday.
The kingdom's 43 commercial banks and 14 specialized banks had lent a total of 19.6 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 20.1 percent from a year earlier, said the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC)'s report.
It said that 28.2 percent of the loan went to retail and wholesale trade, 25.9 percent to real estate, construction and mortgage, 9.4 percent to agriculture, forestry and fishery, 5.5 percent to manufacturing, and the rest went to hotels and restaurants as well as other sectors.
In terms of deposit, the report said the customers' deposits at the commercial banks had reached 19.8 billion U.S. dollars last year, up 14 percent from a year earlier, the report said.
It added that the interest rate for loans in U.S. currency was averagely 10.61 percent per annum, as the interest rate for fixed deposits was averagely 4.81 percent per annum.
According to the report, all commercial banks have a total of 877 branches with 1,832 ATMs (Automated Teller Machines) throughout the country.
