Omani banks achieve 8 per cent growth in credit at OMR22b

Muscat: Omani banks, including Islamic institutions, have achieved a year-on-year growth of 8.1 per cent in credit at OMR22.2 billion by the end of February 2017.
Credit to the private sector increased by 9.5 per cent to OMR20.1 billion as at the end of February 2017, the Central Bank of Oman said in its monthly report. Of the total credit 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 45.8 percent, financial corporations at 5 percent and other sectors the remaining 3 percent.
“The financial position of the banks in Oman in terms of asset quality, provision coverage, capital adequacy and profitability remained sound,” the Central Bank of Oman said in its monthly bulletin.
Total deposits registered a growth of 7.1 per cent to OMR20.8 billion as at the end of February2017.
The CBO report said that private sector deposits of the banking system registered a growth of 7.2 per cent to OMR13.7 billion as at the end of February 2017. Sector-wise, the share of households was 48.6 per cent of the total private sector deposit base, followed by non-financial corporations at 29.5 per cent, financial corporations at 19 per cent and the other sectors at 2.9 per cent.
Conventional banks have achieved an annual growth in total outstanding credit of 5.1per cent as at the end of February 2017. Credit to the private sector increased by 7.4 per cent to reach OMR17.8 billion as at the end of February2017.