22 March 2017
A E James
Muscat: Total credit extended by Omani banks, including Islamic financial institutions, grew by 8.9 per cent year-on-year to OMR22.1 billion by the end of January this year.

Credit to the private sector alone increased by 10.6 per cent to OMR19.9 billion as of the end of January, according to the latest monthly bulletin released by the Central Bank of Oman on Tuesday. 

“The banking sector remained resilient in supporting the economic diversification initiatives and credit needs,” the CBO monthly bulletin noted.

Of the total credit extended to the private sector, the household sector (mainly under personal loans) stood at 46.2 percent, closely followed by the non-financial corporate sector at 45.6 percent and financial corporations at 5.1 per cent.

Total deposits at Omani banks registered a growth of 6.7 per cent to OMR20.6 billion by the end of January, over the same period of last year.

Private sector deposits in the banking system rose by 5.3 per cent to OMR13.4 billion as of the end of January. Sector-wise, the share of households was 48.6 per cent of the total private sector deposit base, followed by non-financial corporations at 28.6 per cent, financial corporations at 19.8 per cent and the other sectors at 3 per cent, the CBO report said.

In fact, conventional banks achieved an incremental year-on-year credit growth of OMR1,143.1 million (or 6.2 per cent) in January to OMR19.58 billion.

Credit to the private sector surged 8.8 per cent to reach OMR17.7 billion at the end of January.

Islamic banks

Islamic banking entities provided financing to the extent of OMR2.5 billion by end-January 2017, compared with OMR1.8 billion a year ago.

Total deposits held in Islamic banks and windows also registered a significant jump to OMR2.2 billion in January, from OMR1.5 billion outstanding for the same period of last year.

The total assets of Islamic banks and windows combined stood at OMR3.2 billion by January-end, which constituted about 10.6 per cent of the banking system assets.

Interest rates rise

As far as the domestic interest rate of conventional banks is concerned, the weighted average interest rate of rial Omani deposits increased from 0.948 per cent in January 2016 to 1.582 per cent in January 2017, while the weighted average rial Omani lending rate increased from 4.760 per cent to 5.104 percent during the same period. The overnight Rial Omani domestic inter-bank lending rate rose to 0.370 per cent in January 2017, from 0.271per cent a year ago.

The average Repos rate for liquidity injection by CBO stood at 1.268 per cent per annum during the month of January 2017.

© Times of Oman 2017