Bank deposits near $1 trillion – Finance Minister reports doubling in 4yrs

Finance Minister Dr Ashni Singh has revealed that total deposits in commercial banks have soared to nearly $1 trillion by the end of 2024, marking a remarkable increase of 88 per cent from just $513 billion in 2020.
Responding to Opposition Member of Parliament (MP) Juretha Fernandes calls for more licences of banks to force competition, among others, Minister Singh at 101st sitting of the 12th Parliament compared the recent surge in deposits and credit growth under the current People’s Progressive Party (PPP) Administration to the previous regime under the A Partnership for National Unity/Alliance for Change (APNU-AFC) Coalition.
Singh pointed out that, while credit to the private sector grew by only 18.2 per cent from 2015 to 2019, during a time of preparation for the country’s oil boom, the PPP Government saw private sector credit leap by an impressive 73.4 per cent from 2020 to 2024.

“Credit to the private sector sir, at the end of 2020, total credit to the private sector was two hundred and sixty billion dollars. Moved from two hundred and sixty billion dollars at the end of 2020 to four hundred and fifty-one billion dollars at the end of 2024. Sir and let me elaborate. Let me contrast sir, the abject mismanagement of the economy under the APNU-AFC with the People’s Progressive Party’s civic record of good stewardship. Mr Speaker, in the four years from end 2015 to end 2019, total private sector credit grew by a paltry thirty-nine point one billion dollar at a time sir, when oil had been found and the entire economy was preparing for production”.
“All of these brilliant ideas that the oil member had about what needs to be done with the law, and what needs to be done, and this and that, and all these brilliant ideas. Apparently, sir, the oil member doesn’t remember that her party was in Government for five years, and none of these brilliant ideas, all licensing new banks. Let her show me which new bank they licensed in the five years they were in Government,” Dr Singh said.
According to the Senior Finance Minister, the increase was further evident in key sectors with agriculture credit growing by an astounding 128 per cent while mining and quarrying sector saw a 22 per cent growth in credit under the current administration.
Additionally, the manufacturing sector, heavily reliant on electricity, also benefited with a significant 103.7 per cent growth in credit and the services sector credit growth doubling from 40.2 per cent under the APNU-AFC to 80.3 per cent under the PPP.
Real estate mortgages were also a notable focus of Singh’s speech, as he highlighted the dramatic contrast in lending practices between the two administrations.
“Sir, let us look at real estate mortgages. Under the four-year period with their stillborn housing programme, their duplex houses that never got off the ground, credit for household mortgages, under their stillborn housing programme, reflecting of their abject incompetence, their failure to distribute house lots, their failure to grant titles, their closure of the Housing Ministry. Sir, real estate mortgages grew, guess by how much? Credit for real estate mortgages, real estate mortgage loans grew by 22 per cent. A mere 15.7 billion. Under the People’s Progressive Party Civic from 2020 to 2024, real estate mortgage loans grew by a staggering 65 billion dollars,” he added.
Further, Singh also underscored the improved cost of borrowing, with the prime lending rate dropping from 13 per cent in 2017-2018 to 8.38 per cent today, and the New Building Society rate for housing loans decreasing from 6.4 per cent to 4.73 per cent.
“Since our return to Government, we have increased the ceiling from eight million dollars to twenty million dollars. They sat down in Government and made no change to the NBS ceiling. Since we came into Government, we increased the ceiling from twelve million dollars to twenty million dollars, allowing more people to take loans and allowing people to borrow more to be able to build their homes or acquire their homes. So, they claim to be concerned about borrowers. When we left Government in 2015, the ceiling on loans eligible for mortgage interest relief was thirty million dollars”.