Cambodia’s banks see sharp rise in loan demands last year: central bank report

 PHNOM PENH, Feb. 2 (Xinhua) -- Loan demands from Cambodia’s banking industry had sharply increased in the past year  thanks to increasing business activities, according to the report of the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) on Thursday.
  The kingdom’s 30 commercial banks had lent a total of 4.32 billion U.S. dollars by the end of 2011, an increase of 32 percent  from 3.28 billion U.S. dollars at the end of 2010, showed the report.
  Nguon Sokha, the NBC’s director general, attributed the well growth in lending to better economic situation.
  “In general, the banking sector was quite stable and healthy last year,” she told Xinhua by telephone. “Most of the loans go to  the sectors of trades, agriculture and tourism.”
  She forecast that the country’s banking sector would grow another 30 percent this year in terms of lending.
  According to the report, on the deposit side, the customers’ deposits at the commercial banks had increased by 20.5 percent to  4.7 billion U.S. dollars by the end of last year from 3.9 billion U.S. dollars in a year earlier.