Lending Pick-Up Will Be Slow

Having contracted for three months (February to April), total credit facilities provided by commercial banks increased (by 1.4% m-o-m) in May, which is perhaps an early indicator that the cumulative 150bps of interest rate cuts enacted by the Central Bank of Jordan (CBJ) between November 2008 and April 2009 are slowly feeding through. True, total credit in May was still 2.7% below last November's peak, and credit growth was still sluggish, coming in at 4.7% y-o-y. Moreover, over the coming months credit growth in y-o-y terms could well drop further. The fact that banks have actually begun to expand their

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