Manila: The Philippines is the only country within the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) indicating an improving trend in credit growth outlook, the Bank of America (BofA) Global Research said. "The Philippines is the only country within ASEAN showing an 'improving' trend - has seen a faster recovery in credit growth to 9-10% and the latest reading of the indicator implies slight improvement from current levels," BofA Global Research said in a report. According to Philippines News Agency, the report highlighted that the directional trend changed to improving from declining due to the increase in import growth and net sales index. This was partially offset, however, by lower auto sales. The BofA's ASEAN Credit Growth Indicators seek to identify directional trends and key turning points for credit growth across ASEAN-5 countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines. The report further noted that this trend would help gauge how banks' loan growths are likely to s hape up over the next one to two quarters. According to the report, the BofA ASEAN Credit Growth Indicators are trending flat in Singapore and Thailand and declining in Malaysia and Indonesia. Latest data from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas showed that outstanding loans of universal and commercial banks, net of reverse repurchase (RRP) placements with the BSP, increased by 11 percent in September this year. The BSP said the expansion was slightly faster than the 10.7-percent growth in August.