Impact of interest rates of bank loans on road construction: the case of Sri Lanka

2018 ◽  
Vol 16 (4) ◽  
pp. 518-532
Author(s):  
Manamgoda Gamage Nimantha Manamgoda ◽  
B.A.K.S. Perera ◽  
Colombapatabendige Savindi Ranthika Perera

Purpose Infrastructure systems play a dominant role in the economic growth of countries. Projects involved with the construction of roads, which is vital for the development of a country, are financed mainly using borrowed funds because of the reliability of debt financing. The cost of borrowing is the interest that has to be paid. In Sri Lanka, there is a high tendency for interest rates of bank loans to fluctuate, and this makes the road projects in the country that are funded with borrowed money to be highly risky. Thus, this paper aims to identify the impact of bank loan interest rates on road construction in Sri Lanka. Design/methodology/approach The study consisted of two questionnaire surveys conducted among financial specialists and road construction experts, followed by a documentary review. The collected data were analysed using Relative Importance Index. The relationship between the interest rates of bank loans and the prices of the resources used in road projects were determined using regression and correlation analyses. Findings The research revealed a strong, linear relationship between interest rate fluctuations and bitumen, aggregate base course, metal and earth price fluctuations. It also identified the pattern of interest rate fluctuations to help practitioners to predict the pattern of input price variations. Originality/value When developing the capital structure of road projects, it is necessary to consider the prices of materials used in the projects when determining the financial risks of debt financing.

2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (3) ◽  
pp. 295-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yinghong Zhang ◽  
Fang Sun ◽  
Chunwei Xian

Purpose This paper aims to examine whether firms retaining industry-specialist auditors receive better price and non-price terms for bank loans. Design/methodology/approach Based on a sample of companies retaining big N auditors during the 2000-2010 period, this paper constructed six proxies for auditor industry expertise and tested three major loan terms: loan spreads, number of general and financial covenants and requirements for collateral. Findings It was found that companies retaining industry-specialist auditors receive lower interest rates and fewer covenants. Banks are also less likely to demand secured collateral. These findings are supported by several sensitivity tests. Research limitations/implications The findings suggest that auditor industry expertise provides incremental value to creditors and that bank loan cost is one economic benefit for companies hiring specialist auditors. Originality/value To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to investigate the impact of auditor industry expertise on the cost of private debts.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shailesh Rastogi ◽  
Adesh Doifode ◽  
Jagjeevan Kanoujiya ◽  
Satyendra Pratap Singh

PurposeCrude oil, gold and interest rates are some of the key indicators of the health of domestic as well as global economy. The purpose of the study is to find the shock volatility and price volatility effects of gold and crude oil market on interest rates in India.Design/methodology/approachThis study finds the mutual and directional association of the volatility of gold, crude oil and interest rates in India. The bi-variate GARCH models (Diagonal VEC GARCH and BEKK GARCH) are applied on the sample data of gold price, crude oil price and yield (interest rate) gathered from November 30, 2015 to November 16, 2020 (weekly basis) to investigate the volatility association including the volatility spillover effect in the three markets.FindingsThe main findings of the study focus on having a long-term conditional correlation between gold and interest rates, but there is no evidence of volatility spillover from gold and crude oil on the interest rates. The findings of the study are of great importance especially to the policymakers, as they state that the fluctuations in prices of gold and crude oil do not adversely impact the interest rates in India. Therefore, the fluctuations in prices of gold and crude may generally impact the economy, but it has nothing to do with interest rate in particular. This implies that domestic and foreign investments in the country will not be affected by gold and crude oil that are largely driven by interest rates in the country.Practical implicationsGold and crude oil are two very important commodities that have their importance not only for domestic affairs but also for international business. They veritably influence the economy including forex exchange for any nation. In addition to this, the researchers believe the findings will provide insights to policymakers, stakeholders and investors.Originality/valueGold and crude oil undoubtedly influence the exchange rates but their impact on the interest rates in an economy is not definite and remains ambiguous owing to the mixed findings of the studies. The lack of studies related to the impact of gold and crude oil on the interest rates, despite them being essentials for the health of any economy is the main motivation of this study. This study is novel as it investigates the volatility impact of crude oil and gold on interest rates and contributes to the existing literature with its findings.


2019 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Phung The Dong ◽  
Nguyen Thi Hong Nham

The difficulty in accessing loans is one of the major barriers to the development of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Vietnam. Low accessibility to capital forces SMEs to spend both official and unofficial costs in order to obtain loans, and/or to access the unofficial market at higher interest rates, thereby increasing cost of production of enterprises. Studies suggest that the determinants of bank loan processing through which small and medium enterprises can access official loans include: characteristics of enterprises; indicators, reflecting the performance of enterprises; characteristics of loans; characteristics of enterprises, enterprise owners; geographical position of enterprises; the creditworthiness of enterprises and the role of the network.Purpose of the study.The aim of this paper is the quantitative analysis of the factors, affecting accessibility to credit capital of small and medium enterprises in Vietnam.Materials and methods.This study was conducted on the basis of a survey in December 2017. The survey includes 301 enterprises in Hanoi city. Selected enterprises are also enterprises, surveyed in the annual enterprise survey by the General Statistics Office of Vietnam. This paper uses the Probit and Logit regression approach to estimate the impact of factors, affecting the disbursement probability of a loan of an enterprise. The number of SMEs accounts for 56.69% of the samples. The number of enterprises, applying for a bank loan accounts for 58.4% of the total samples, of which the percentage of disbursed loans for SMEs accounts for only 47.3%. For enterprises without a bank loan, eliminating the reasons for the lack of demand and unwish to be in debt, the main reasons not to access bank loans are high interest rates, complicated loan procedures and insufficient collateral.Results.The results obtained from the Logistic and Probit models show that the estimated coefficients are statistically significant, affecting the probability of taking a business loan, accepted by financial institutions. Although the coefficients, estimated from Logistics model are larger than those estimated from the Probit model, the estimated results show that the direction of impact of the variables in two estimation techniques gives quite similar results.Conclusion.Based on the results of this study, the Government of Vietnam should implement policies to support SMEs in the direction of improving their access to capital. The credit institutions should design products and services suitable to the characteristics of SMEs in Vietnam.


2019 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 392-409 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francisco Bastida ◽  
María-Dolores Guillamón ◽  
Bernardino Benito ◽  
Ana-María Ríos

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact of mayors’ corruption on the municipal interest rate set by lenders. Design/methodology/approach The sample consists of a panel data for all the Spanish cities with population over 50,000 for 2002–2013 (130 municipalities). In line with previous literature and the structure of the panel data, the authors use a generalized method of moments equation to the main model and three robustness checks. Findings The results, robust to different specifications, indicate that banks do not take mayors’ corruption as a significant risk component of the municipal solvency. The data show a “corruption premium” ranging from −1 to 33 basis points, which aligns with the size of the “corruption premium” found by the literature, but the significance is low. This finding is connected, on the one hand, with the rigid, thorough Spanish legal framework ruling municipal financial management, and on the other hand, with the characteristics of mayors’ corruption. Robust evidence shows that key financial indicators influence interest rates: current saving, with a strong influence, and level of indebtedness, to a lesser extent. Besides, more populated cities pay lower interest rates. Research limitations/implications The main limitation stems from the calculation of interest rate, because but sharp debt changes may decrease the accuracy. Practical implications The data prove that banks value this surplus as a sign of solvency and set lower interest rates. Considering that this financial indicator is key for setting the interest rate, as a point for practitioners, current saving should be monitored by the municipal financial officer, as a way to reduce the financial cost. Besides, legislation should consider current saving as a benchmark to set balanced budget rules or to establish conditions for municipalities to get into greater indebtedness. Originality/value This is the first research on municipal interest rate premium due to corruption in Spain.


2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (4) ◽  
pp. 555-568
Author(s):  
Hui Hong ◽  
Zhicun Bian ◽  
Naiwei Chen ◽  
Chiwei Su

Purpose This paper aims to examine the impact of interest rate liberalisation on the constancy of mean interest rates in China to test the effect of financial reforms and provide strategies for future practices. Design/methodology/approach Bai and Perron’s (1998, 2003) methodology is used to test for structural breaks in the mean of different interest rates using Chinese data, and break dates are measured against the exact dates of the interest rate liberalisation. The performance of mean interest rates across the regimes defined by liberalisation dates is also investigated. Findings The main results show that interest rates generally increase (decrease) after deregulations on lending (deposit) rates, but these changes are not significant to induce a negative impact on the domestic economy. Instead, the infrequent but important shifts (structural breaks) in mean interest rates are caused by factors other than liberalisation such as economic shocks, inflationary expectation and liquidity crunch in China. Originality/value To the best of the author’s knowledge, this paper provides unprecedented evidence on significant changes in interest rates attributable to the liberalisation within the Chinese context.


2021 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
HyunJun Na

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate how the innovative firm’s proprietary information has an impact on its debt financing preference. This study also examines the impact of industry-level competition on the debt financing orders and investigates how two exogenous shocks impacted on innovative firms’ financing policies. Design/methodology/approach This paper uses the three types of debt data, including bonds, private debt placements and bank loans and patent application data, in the USA from 1987–2008. The number of patents applications and industry-level competition are used as proxies for a firm’s innovation and industry-level sensitivity. In addition, to minimize endogenous concern, this study uses the propensity score matching analysis and difference-in-differences. Findings The patents are the primary determinants for innovative firms to choose the debt types. The paper shows that innovative firms have the debt preference order – public debt, private placement and bank loans. However, as competition increases, innovative firms devise the order reverse. Finally, the paper provides evidence that the American Inventor’s Protection Act (AIPA) and the tech bubble crash made investors depend more on firms with more patents. Originality/value This paper is the first to study the impact of the AIPA on innovative firms’ financial policies using the propensity score matching analysis. The findings imply that both patents and industry-level competition are important factors to understand the capital structures for innovative firms.


2019 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 227-243
Author(s):  
Mohamed Aseel Shokr

Purpose This paper aims to examine the effectiveness of monetary policy on bank loans in Egypt using generalized method of moments (GMM) model. Also, it investigates the impact of bank level variables, namely, total assets, liquidity, capital and income on bank loans. It develops the equation of loans, which is introduced by Ehrmann et al. (2002) using bank level variables such as income and the interaction between income and interest rate. Design/methodology/approach This paper examines the impact of monetary policy shocks on bank loans in Egypt by applying the GMM technique and panel data from 1996 to 2014. Findings The results reveal that real interest rate has a significant impact on bank loans, which indicates that the bank lending channel is effective in Egypt. Furthermore, the bank level variables, namely, banks’ size, liquidity and income have significant effects on bank loans in Egypt, which sustains the heterogeneous effect of monetary policy on bank loans. Therefore, the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) can adjust interest rate to influence the bank loans and total demand. Research limitations/implications It does not examine the effect of monetary policy on small and large banks in Egypt. Practical implications The policy implications from this paper indicate that the monetary authority in Egypt should adjust interest rate to stabilize the bank loan supply. By stabilizing the bank loans, the monetary authority is able to stabilize investment, consumption and total demand. Social implications The relevance of bank lending channel indicates that the role of commercial banks is very important in transmitting monetary policy shocks to the real sector. Originality/value It is important for the CBE, banks and people because it shows the effectiveness of bank lending channel and the effect of global financial crisis on the Egyptian economy.


2016 ◽  
Vol 6 (5) ◽  
pp. 521-534 ◽  
Author(s):  
E.M.K. Ekanayake ◽  
B.A.K.S. Perera

Purpose Delays represent one of the most critical factors that affect the cost of a construction project. They have to be therefore analysed comprehensively using appropriate techniques. The purpose of this paper is to find out the delay analysis techniques (DATs) that are most commonly used in road projects in Sri Lanka, the extent of their usage, the criteria that can be used in selecting them and the technique that is most appropriate for the selection. Design/methodology/approach The research methodology adopted included an extensive literature review, expert interviews and a questionnaire survey. Findings In road projects in Sri Lanka, five types of DATs are mainly used. The “As-planned v. As-built Analysis” technique is the most commonly used technique while “Window Analysis” is the least used technique. Out of the nine criteria identified for selecting a DAT, the most important criterion is the acceptability of the technique to courts and tribunals. “Window Analysis” was found to be the most appropriate DAT that can be used in road construction projects in Sri Lanka. Originality/value “Window Analysis” can be recommended as the most appropriate DAT for road projects in Sri Lanka.


2012 ◽  
Vol 11 (11) ◽  
pp. 1269
Author(s):  
Pasquale Di Biase

This paper empirically investigates the impact of the new capital requirements imposed under Basel III on bank lending rates.A general accounting equilibrium model is developed in order to map the change in the average interest rate on bank loans which is required to preserve the economic performance and the market value of financial institutions under the new regulatory framework.The study refers to the Italian banking system. According to our estimates, the long-term impact of heightened capital requirements on bank loan rates is likely to be modest.In our baseline scenario, we find evidence that each percentage point increase in the capital ratio can be recovered by increasing interest rates with which borrowers are charged by only 5.75 basis points. We conclude that the Italian banking system should be able to adjust to the higher capital requirements imposed by Basel III through a set of operative and commercial levers with no significant effects on the cost of credit for companies and consumers.


2020 ◽  
Vol 47 (5) ◽  
pp. 1181-1196
Author(s):  
Noura Abu Asab

PurposeThe paper investigates the interest rate policy transmission mechanism and the role of market structure of the banking industry in Qatar.Design/methodology/approachCompetitiveness indexes are used to measure the degree of market power in the banking industry in Qatar. The momentum threshold autoregressive model is applied over the monthly period from January 2005 to June 2018 to examine the magnitude of intermediation and adjustment to disequilibria in the deposit market. In addition, to model interest rate volatility and overcome the problem of heteroscedastic errors in the error correction standard models, an asymmetric EC-EGARCH-M model is applied.FindingsThe findings suggest incomplete pass-through and asymmetric response to monetary shocks. The asymmetric adjustment mechanism is found to be downward rigid which suggests a high degree of customer sophistication and an elastic supply of deposits. The results of the EC-EGARCH-M show that the impact of monetary policy shocks has a significant positive impact on deposit interest rates and that negative monetary shocks trigger more conditional interest rate volatility in the next period than positive monetary shocks for a short maturity rate.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to highlight the behaviour of the interest rate pass through channel and measures the degree of competitiveness of the banking industry for the case of a small, rich country. In addition, using recent data, the paper applies different econometric methodologies and overcomes the problem of heteroskedastic errors by modelling the interest rate volatility using the EC-EGARCH-M model.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document