In September, NIC was given a negative outlook by South African credit rating agency, Global Credit Rating for its surge in bad loans. Bad loans at Kenya Commercial Bank rose from Sh18.1 billion to Sh26.4 billion while Equity Bank saw NPLs rise from Sh9.2 billion to Sh13.3 billion. However, private sector credit only grew by Sh2 billion in August to Sh2.260 trillion from Sh2.258 trillion in July. CBK said that private sector credit grew just 7.1 percent in July from 17.8 percent in December of last year. “Private sector credit goes through cycles and usually at peak times lenders expand credit until the economy overheats forcing rate jerks as happened last year but due to a lag effect shrinking is seen 6 to 9 months later,” Mr Qureishi.

Source: Standard Digital November 28, 2016 21:09 UTC