Auto financing drops for third straight month

The amount of outstanding auto loans decreased for the third consecutive month at the end of September, data released by the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) showed on Wednesday. The outstanding financing for vehicles stood at Rs397.4 billion at the end of last month, down roughly Rs2bn from August. The month-on-month decline becomes more pronounced by excluding the auto loans that banks extended to their own employees. Auto financing has shrunk by more than Rs17bn or 4pc since the beginning of 2022-23. Speaking to Dawn, Pak-Kuwait Investment Company Ltd Head of Research Samiullah Tariq said there’re three major reasons for a continuous drop in auto financing. One, car prices shot up as soon as the government and the SBP took measures to restrict the outflow of dollars by curbing imports.