Omani conventional banks’ total credit grows 3.9% to OMR18.1m

Muscat: The total credit of Omani conventional banks grew by 3.9 per cent to OMR18.1 million by the end of June 2017. Conventional banks’ overall investments in securities grew by 8.5 per cent to OMR2.8 million, with investment in Government Treasury Bills and foreign securities increasing by 24.4 per cent and 17.6 per cent, respectively, by the end of June 2017.
Investment in government securities, including government development bonds (GDBs), government sukuk and others, increased marginally by 0.7 per cent over the year to OMR1.3 million.
On the other hand, aggregate deposits with conventional banks increased marginally by 2.7 per cent to OMR18.7 million in June 2017 from OMR18.2 million a year ago. Government deposits with conventional banks went up by 4.5 per cent to OMR5.0 million, while deposits of public enterprises decreased marginally by 0.2 per cent to OMR1.1 million during the same period.Private sector deposits, which accounted for 65.6 per cent of total deposits with conventional banks, increased by 2.4 per cent to OMR12.3 billion in June 2017 from OMR12.0 million a year ago.
The core capital and reserves of conventional banks at the end of June 2017 stood at OMR4.1 million. Islamic banking entities provided financing to the extent of OMR2.8 million by the end of June 2017, compared with OMR2.1 million a year ago.
Total deposits held with Islamic banks and windows also registered a significant increase to OMR2.7 million in June this year, up from OMR1.8 million as of the end of June 2016.
The total assets of Islamic banks and windows combined, amounted to OMR3.6 million by the end of June 2017, constituting about 11.6 per cent of the banking system assets.
With regard to monetary aggregates as of the end of June 2017, narrow money stock (M1) registered a year-on-year increase of 1.3 per cent to OMR5.4 million. However, quasi-money (rial Omani saving and time deposits, certificates of deposit issued by banks, margin deposits and foreign currency denominated deposits) witnessed a growth of 5.1 per cent during the period.
Broad money supply M2 (M1 plus quasi-money) stood at OMR16.1 million by the end of June 2017 and grew by 3.8 per cent during the period.
With respect to the domestic interest rate structure of conventional banks, the weighted average interest rate on rial Omani deposits increased to 1.621 per cent in June 2017 from 1.182 per cent a year ago, while the weighted average rial Omani lending rate increased to 5.123 per cent from 4.854 per cent during the same period. The overnight rial Omani domestic inter-bank lending rate stood at 0.978 per cent in June 2017, much higher when compared to 0.412 per cent a year ago. The average Repos rate for liquidity injection by the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) stood at 1.638 per cent per annum during the month of June 2017. — ONA