DOHA: Qatar banks’ foreign credit surged to a huge 60 percent in the first quarter of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. The banks’ credit to outside Qatar jumped to QR72bn from QR45bn a year ago.
Domestic credit jumped nearly 10 percent to QR599bn in the first quarter on year-on-year basis, according to Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) preliminary estimates.
QCB’s quarterly bulletin indicated Qatar’s commercial banks’ domestic investments rose by 5.53 percent to QR129.7bn during Q1 compared to the same period in 2014. The banks’ domestic investment in March 2014 stood at QR122.9bn. The combined assets of commercial banks scaled up to QR1.01 trillion in the first quarter from QR946bn recorded in March 2014. The total assets of banks had crossed the QR1 trillion mark for the first time in December 2014, but slipped the threshold in both January and February 2015. The banks’ total assets in February stood at QR991bn.
Commercial banks’ foreign investment stood QR50bn in March 2015, down from QR51bn recorded a year ago. The banks’ credit outside Qatar, however, surged to QR72bn in March from QR45bn in 2014.
The QCB data said the estimated total assets touched QR203bn in Q1, up from QR200bn from the previous month. QCB’s net international reserves slipped by to QR142bn in Q1 from QR155bn recorded in the previous quarter. The country’s banking system’s net foreign assets recorded QR102bn in March, down from the previous quarter’s QR124bn. Net domestic net assets jumped to QR405bn from QR379bn in the previous quarter. Qatar’s total money supply (M1) rose to QR126bn in March, from QR124bn recorded in the previous year. The country’s average movement in money supply (M2) continued to grow to hit QR508bn or 0.8 percent up on quarter-on-quarter basis.
M1 measures a country’s most liquid components of the money supply, as it contains cash and assets that can quickly be converted to currency. M2 includes savings deposits, money market mutual funds and other time deposits, which are less liquid and but can quickly converted into cash or deposits.
Meanwhile, industry sources disclosed yesterday that private sector loans grew by 1.9 percent on month-on-month basis in April 2015 compared to 3.1 percent month-on-month growth in March 2015.
Analysts at Global Investment House (GIH) noted: Total assets of GCC banks under our overage expanded 10.4 percent YoY to $1.2 trillion in Q4, 14. Qatar-based banks witnessed the strongest growth in total assets (11.2 percent YoY), followed by banks in Kuwait (10.6 percent), GIH that covers five major banks in Qatar, noted the expansion in asset base of GCC banks, including in Qatar, was supported by growth in loan book.
