The growth of credit disbursement in state-owned commercial banks but for Sonali Bank fell sharply in 2011 compared with that in the year before because of a liquidity crisis in the financial sector, central bank officials said.
A Bangladesh Bank official told New Age on Thursday that SCBs had been facing liquidity crisis for a year because of shortage of the deposit collection from clients.
He said that a double-digit inflation had persisted for most of the month in 2011 and it had hit the overall deposit condition in the banks.
A large number of clients could not deposit money to banks because of the high inflation which affected credit programmes of the banks.
Bangladesh Bank data show that the credit growth in Janata Bank in 2011 had stood at 14.95 per cent compared with a 36.99 per cent the year before.
The bank disbursed Tk 24,292.43 crore in loans in 2011 against Tk 21,132.25 crore in 2010. The loan disbursement by Janata Bank in 2009 stood at 15,425.25 crore.
The credit growth in Agrani Bank in 2011 reached 19.88 per cent compared with that of 35.62 in 2010.
A total of Tk 17,918.16 crore had been disbursed in 2011 by the bank against Tk 14,946.42 crore in 2010. The loan disbursement by Agrani Bank in 2009 stood at Tk 11,020.05 crore.
The credit growth in Rupali Bank in 2011 stood at 15.44 per cent from 26.66 per cent that in 2010.
The bank disbursed Tk 7,299.53 crore in loans in 2011 against Tk 6,323.19 crore in 2010. The loan disbursement of the bank in 2009 stood at 4,991.92 crore.
According to the central bank data, credit growth of only Sonali Bank out of the four SCBs increased in 2011 by 15 per cent in 2011 compared with 11.94 per cent in 2010.
The bank disbursed Tk 31,895 crore in loans in 2011 against Tk 26,300.62 crore in 2010. The loan disbursement by Sonali Bank in 2009 stood at Tk 23,494.32 crore.
Another central bank official said that the recovery of the previous SCB loans was not in a good shape in the previous year, which also contributed to decline in loan disbursement.    
In addition, the SCBs in the past year hugely borrowed from the call money market to maintain daily activities because of a severe liquidity crisis.
According to the central bank data, Agrani Bank was the top borrower from the call money market in 2011. It borrowed Tk 1,56,825 crore against the figure of Tk 16,859 crore in 2010.
The other SCBs also borrowed with high interest rate from the call money market in the period.