Cambodia's banking sector has seen 17 percent rise in lending in the first nine months of the year, the central bank's figures showed Thursday.

The kingdom's 34 commercial banks had provided a total loan of 6.89 billion U.S. dollars to customers by the end of September this year, up 17 percent from 5.88 billion U.S. dollars at the end of last year, the figures said.

Loans are mainly allocated to trade, agriculture, industries, construction, hotels and restaurants, mortgages and real estate.

On the deposit side, by September this year, the banks had received a total deposit of 6.62 billion U.S. dollars, up 7 percent from 6.16 billion U.S. dollars at the end of last year.

Chea Chanto, governor of the National Bank of Cambodia, has recently said that the banking sector has been developing soundly, in terms of scope, operational scale and products.

He attributed the growth to the increasing supports and participation of foreign investors and customers in the sector.

The Southeast Asian nation has the population of about 14.7 million with its banking sector serving about 1.6 million borrowers and 1.9 million depositors. Endi

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