Peru loan growth slowing down

Peru's banking system loans increased nearly 4% year-on-year to 232bn soles (US$67bn) in October, the slowest growth for any month this year, according to banking association Asbanc.

The association attributed the slowdown to weak local demand in the overall economy, with the exception of the mining sector.

The de-dollarization of loans also slowed down in October: soles-denominated loans reached 158bn soles, up 0.26% month-on-month and 7.7% higher year-on-year, the slowest increase of 2016.

Soles-denominated loans represented 68% of total loans by the end of October, 1.8 percentage points higher than in October 2015.

Foreign currency denominated loans totaled US$22.1bn by the end of October.