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2018 Annual Economic and Financial Review
SAINT LUCIA
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102
Eastern Caribbean Central Bank
year. The outcome was associated with
declines in lending for most categories.
Outstanding credit for personal uses fell by
1.5 per cent ($27.5m) compared with last year
when that category of credit rose by
8.9 per cent. Credit to construction contracted
by 8.1 per cent ($17.6m), consistent with the
performance of that sector. Additionally,
lending to tourism, agriculture and
distributive trades recorded contractions of
$3.8m, $2.8 and $2.2m, respectively. These
declines were partially offset by increases of
3.9 per cent in credit for other personal uses
($28.1m) and 11.9 per cent ($7.8m) for
manufacturing.
The banking system recorded $833.3m in
net foreign assets at the end of 2018, up
from $594.3m one year earlier
. This outturn
was mainly associated with a turn-around by
the commercial banks to a net asset position of
$91.3m, from a net liabilities position of
$235.7m at the end of December 2017. Assets
held with institutions outside the region
increased by 26.9 per cent ($275.3m) and
those within the ECCU grew by 17.4 per cent
($87.8m). Foreign liabilities held outside the
ECCU contracted by 8.9 per cent ($60.9m),
while those held within the region increased
by 9.0 per cent ($97.1m). Saint Lucia’s
imputed share of the Central Bank’s reserves
decreased by 10.6 per cent to $742.0m.
Liquidity in the commercial banking system
improved during the year. At the end of
December, the ratio of liquid assets to short-
term liabilities stood at 42.0 per cent, which
was above the recommended minimum and
about 2.9 percentage points higher than the
level recorded at the end of 2017. The ratio
of loans and advances to total deposits fell by
2.8 percentage points to 80.7 per cent, which
remained well within the ECCB’s stipulated
range of 75.0 to 85.0 per cent.
Worthy of note was the liquid assets to total
assets ratio, which increased by
2.8 percentage points to 39.5 per cent at the
end of the calendar year. In respect of asset
quality, the ratio of non-performing loans to
gross loans fell by 2.5 percentage points to
10.0 per cent during the year under review, a
convergence to the 5.0 per cent prudential
limit.