AN increase in money supply as per the latest metric 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 BD15.7 billion at the end of January 2023, an increase of 5.3 per cent compared to end-January 2022, the regulator said in a statement yesterday after its first board of directors meeting for the year 2023.

Money supply at the end of 2022 was BD15.1bn, an increase of 1.7pc compared to the end of 2021.

As for retail banks, total private deposits increased to BD13.5bn at the end of 2022, an increase of 4.4pc compared to the end of 2021.

Chaired by Hassan Al Jalahma, the board reviewed key monetary and banking developments for the year 2022 and the CBB’s financial performance report for 2022, noting that the outstanding balance of total loans and credit facilities extended to resident economic sectors increased to BD11.3bn at the end of 2022, an increase of 3.6pc compared to the end of 2021, with the business sector accounting for 43.8pc and the personal sector at 50.6pc of total loans and credit facilities.

In addition, the board reviewed the main economic indicators for the year 2022 and noted the real economic growth during the third quarter of 2022 of 4.2pc compared with the same period of the year 2021.

Furthermore, the consumer price index registered an increase of 3.6pc in 2022 compared with 2021.

As for the balance of payments, current account surplus increased sharply from BD978.5m in 2021 to BD2571.3m in 2022.

The balance sheet of the banking system (retail banks and wholesale sector banks) increased to $224.1bn at the end of 2022, an increase of 3pc compared to the end of 2021.

Point of sale (POS) data indicated an increase in the number of transactions during 2022, totalling 162.8m transactions (74.5pc of which were contactless), an increase of 29.7pc compared to the same period in 2021.

The total value of POS transactions in the kingdom during 2022 totalled BD3.8bn, (46.7pc contactless), an increase of 22pc compared to the same period in 2021.

As for the first two months of 2023, POS transactions totalled 28.6m (77pc contactless), an increase of 19.2pc compared to the first two months of 2022.

The total value of POS transactions for the first two months of 2023 totalled BD657.7m (49.5pc of them contactless), an increase of 16.9pc compared to the first two months of 2022.

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 19.6pc in Q4 2022 compared with 18.7pc in Q4 2021.

The capital adequacy ratio for the various banking sectors was 21.5pc for conventional retail banks, 17.6pc for conventional wholesale banks, 21pc for Islamic retail banks, and 17pc for Islamic wholesale banks in Q4 2022.

The total number of registered collective investment undertakings (CIUs) as of end-2022 stood at 1,745 CIUs, of which 211 new CIUs were registered during 2022, an increase of 63.6pc compared to 2021.

The net asset value (NAV) of the CIUs increased from $10.6bn in 2021 to $11.6bn in 2022, reflecting an increase of 8.7pc.

Moreover, the NAV of overseas domiciled CIUs increased from $4.7bn in 2021 to $6.1bn in 2022, an increase of 31.3pc.

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