By Alice Uribe
SYDNEY–Business lending in Australia is likely to rebound and hit a high in 2022, even as organizations are challenged by staff shortages and heightened labor costs amid an inflationary environment, according to Judo Capital Holdings Ltd.
Joseph Healy, chief executive of Judo, a listed Australian bank focusing on small to medium-size enterprises, said that while business lending had been “subdued” over the last decade, there likely will be an uptick.
“We remain confident about the outlook in terms of business credit growth getting to what would be a 14-year high. We forecasted that at 8.7% for 2022,” he told The Wall Street Journal.
Data from the Australian Prudential Regulation Authority for January show that nonfinancial business lending increased by 4.6 billion Australian dollars (US$3.4 billion), or 0.5%.
“Despite the deterioration in business conditions in January due to staffing…
