Banks’ realty credit jumps in Qatar

Doha / Emirates Business

Qatar banks’ credit to real estate sector jumped 27.36 percent to QR125bn in 2015, compared to QR95bn reported a year ago. Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) preliminary estimates for the fourth quarter of 2015 showed the credit distribution to the sector hit at QR114bn during the third quarter of 2015.
The banks’ total domestic credit rose to QR660bn in 2015, up from QR586bn reported in previous year.
The banks’ domestic credit stood at QR633bn in Q3, 15.
A breakdown of last year’s credit distribution shows public sector credit jumped to QR238bn from QR233bn in 2014. The credit facility to the sector was QR233bn in the third quarter. Private sector credit increased to QR422bn inQ4, 2015, from the previous quarter’s QR409bn. Credit to the government sector rose to QR76bn, up from QR64bn in 2014 and QR60bn from Q3, 2015.
Credit to general trade sector stood at QR59bn, up from QR48bn recorded in 2014. The facility to the industry sector rose to QR15bn from the previous year’s QR12bn and contracting portfolio saw a huge jump by QR7bn to QR37bn.
Qatar banks’ total outside credit surged to QR87bn in 2015, from QR63bn in 2014. The bank’s total credit including outside Qatar, rose to QR748bn from the previous year’s QR650bn.
Commercial banks combined assets hit QR1.112 trillion in 2015, compared to QR1.004 trillion a year ago. Debt securities declined to QR34bn from QR39bn.
Debt security under domestic liability rose to QR4bn from QR3bn in the previous year. Banks’ provision rate increased to QR10.6bn from QR9.9bn, but slipped during the fourth quarter of 2015, from QR10.8bn recorded during the previous quarter.
Qatar’s total money supply (M1) grew 0.7 percent in Q4, 2015, from the previous quarter. The country’s average movement in money supply (M2) also grew by 0.7 percent.
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 be converted into cash or deposits.
Qatar National Bank Financial services (QNBFS) in its monthly banking update recently noted the banks’ loan book decreased by 1.4 percent Month-over-Month in January 2016, up 13.1 percent Year-on-Year (YoY) for full year 2014 (FY2014) while deposits declined by 2.2 percent Month on Month (MoM) in the month of January 2015. Public sector pushed total credit down with a decline of 7.1 percent MoM.
Public sector deposits dropped by 5.9 percent in January 2016, from a year ago.