Bahrain’s money supply up 3.7%

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An increase in money supply till end-August is consistent with the return of activity in all national economic sectors, the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) has said.

Money supply in its broad sense, (M3), totalled BD15.2 billion at the end of August 2022, an increase of 3.7 per cent compared to end-August 2021, the regulator said in a statement yesterday after its third board of directors meeting for the year 2022.

Chaired by Hassan Al Jalahma, the board reviewed key monetary and banking developments for the third quarter of 2022 and the CBB’s financial performance report as of end-August 2022, noting that for retail banks, total private deposits increased to around BD13.5bn as of end-August 2022, an increase of 6.1pc compared to end-August 2021.

The outstanding balance of total loans and credit facilities provided to resident economic sectors increased to BD11.4bn as of end-August 2022, an increase of 6pc compared to the end of August 2021, with the Business Sector accounting for 45.3pc and the personal sector at 49.3pc of total loans and credit facilities.

The balance sheet of the banking system (retail banks and wholesale sector banks) increased to $224.4bn as of end-August 2022, an increase of 7.4pc compared to the end of August 2021.

Point of sale (POS) data indicated an increase in the number of transactions during the first eight months of 2022, totalling 104.2m transactions (73.5pc of which were through contactless cards), an increase of 37.1pc compared to the same period in 2021.

The total value of POS transactions in the kindom during the period from January-August 2022 totalled BD2.5bn, (45.9pc contactless), an increase of 31.2pc compared to the same period in 2021.

Review of the data shows the banking sector maintained a high level of capital adequacy and liquidity, as the capital adequacy ratio of the banking sector amounted to 19pc in the second quarter of 2022 compared with 18.8pc in the second quarter of 2021.

The capital adequacy ratio for the various banking sectors in the second quarter of 2022 was 20.4pc for conventional retail banks, 17.7pc for conventional wholesale banks, 21pc for Islamic retail banks, and 15.4pc for Islamic wholesale banks.