Indonesia's BCA sees loan growth slowing in 2009

JAKARTA- Indonesia's second-largest lender, PT Bank Central Asia Tbk, said on Wednesday that it expects loan growth to slow to about 15 percent this year, from about 36.5 percent in 2008.
BCA's loan growth in 2008 was higher than the central bank's forecast of about a third for the whole sector.
But BCA's vice president director, Jahja Setiaatmadja, said loan growth would slow as Southeast Asia's largest economy feels the impact of the global financial crisis.
"The growth (in 2008) was supported by our corporate lending, especially at the beginning of the sub-prime mortgage crisis when foreign banks stopped lending to Indonesian companies," Setiaatmadja told Reuters.
He said BCA's outstanding loans grew by around 30 trillion rupiah ($2.75 billion) last year, from 80.7 trillion rupiah at the end of 2007.
Indonesia's economic growth is expected to slow to 5 percent this year from an estimate of 6.2 percent in 2008. ($1=10,900 Rupiah)