KARACHI, Jan 23: Credit to agriculture sector increased 26 per cent in the first half of the current fiscal and most of it was distributed by five major commercial banks.

The SBP said on Tuesday that disbursement of credit to agriculture sector by commercial and specialised banks showed an impressive growth of 25.94 per cent year-on-year during the first half of the current fiscal year (July-December, 2007).

Commercial and specialised banks disbursed Rs90.277 billion to the agriculture sector during July-December period as compared to Rs71.681 billion in the same period last year, showing an absolute increase of Rs18.596 billion.

Overall credit disbursement by Allied Bank Limited (ABL), Habib Bank Limited (HBL), MCB Bank, National Bank of Pakistan (NBP) and United Bank Limited (UBL) stood at Rs44.914 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year, compared with Rs34.280 billion during the corresponding period last year, depicting an increase of Rs10.634 billion or 31pc.

NBP and HBL topped the list of five big commercial banks in terms of agricultural credit disbursement of Rs13.938 billion and Rs10.420 billion against the annual target of Rs32 billion and Rs22 billion, respectively.

During July-December period, MCB Bank disbursed Rs9.688 billion, ABL Rs6.831 billion and UBL Rs4.034 billion against their annual targets of Rs18.50 billion, Rs11 billion and Rs13 billion, respectively.

Moreover, Zarai Taraqiati Bank Limited (ZTBL) disbursed Rs23.870 billion during the first half of the current fiscal year, while disbursement by the Punjab Provincial Co-operative Bank Limited (PPCBL) stood at Rs2.402 billion.

Besides, 14 other domestic private banks (DPBs) loaned a combined amount of Rs19.090 billion during July-December period against the full-year target of Rs35.50 billion.