KARACHI: The scheduled banks`investments have drastically reduced to just Rs190 billion in FY18: only 17 per cent (fell by 83 per cent) of the increase noted in FY17.

According to latest data from the State Bank of Pakistan, in FY17, the banks` investments rose by Rs1,099bn. Therecentfallindicates the changed trend of banking as advances were higher coupled with the increased deposits. The total investments of the banks at the end of FY18 stood at Rs8.178tr.

Deposits of scheduled banks went up by Rs1.36 trillion to Rs13.062tr in FY18 while their advances also increased by almost the same amount of Rs1.34tr during the period.

The banks`lending to private sector was slightly higher by Rs20bn to reach Rs768bn. This increase, however, was not encouraging in the wake of a low interest rate and inflation scenario.