Bank credit of conventional banks in Oman increases by 6.5%

Muscat: Oman’s conventional banks have achieved a 6.5 per cent growth in total credit disbursements, while credit to the private sector alone grew by 8.6 per cent to OMR17.6 billion at the end of November 2016, according to the review of the activities of conventional banks in Oman.
Conventional banks’ overall investments in securities stood at OMR2.7 billion at the end of November 2016 while investment in government development bonds (GDBs) and government sukuk rose by 18.9 per cent over the year to OMR989 million at the end of November 2016.
Banks also invested OMR336.1 million in government treasury bills at the end of November 2016. While conventional banks’ investments in foreign securities stood at OMR714.7 million in November 2016, the aggregate deposits held with conventional banks increased slightly by one per cent to OMR18.2 billion in November 2016 from OMR18 billion a year ago. Government deposits with conventional banks declined by 1.4 per cent to OMR4.8 billion. Deposits of public enterprises also fell by 2.3 per cent to OMR1 billion during the same period. Private sector deposits which accounted for 66.3 per cent of total deposits with conventional banks.
The core capital and reserves of conventional banks stood at OMR3.7 billion at the end of November 2016, a rise of 13.2 per cent over the previous year.
Islamic banking entities provided financing to the extent of OMR2.4 billion by the end of November 2016 against OMR1.6 billion a year ago. Total deposits held with Islamic banks and windows also registered a significant increase to OMR2.1 billion in November 2016 from OMR1.5 billion outstanding by the end of November 2015. The total assets of Islamic banks and windows combined, amounted to OMR3 billion at the end of November 2016, which constituted about 10 per cent of the banking system assets.
With regard to monetary aggregates as at the end of November 2016, narrow money stock (M1) when measured on year-on-year basis, registered a drop of 5.4 per cent to OMR5.1 billion. However, quasi-money (Rial Omani saving and time deposits, certificates of deposit issued by banks, margin deposits and foreign currency denominated deposits) witnessed an appreciable growth of 10.3 per cent during the period.
Broad money supply M2 (M1 plus quasi-money) stood at OMR15.6 billion at the end of November 2016 registering a rise of 4.6 per cent during the period. With respect to domestic interest rate structure of conventional banks, the weighted average interest rate on RO deposits increased from 0.904 per cent in November 2015 to 1.443 per cent in November 2016, while the weighted average RO lending rate increased from 4.763 per cent to 5.081 per cent during the same period.
The overnight rial Omani domestic inter-bank lending rate increased to 0.475 per cent in November 2016 from 0.153 per cent a year ago. The average Repos rate for liquidity injection by the CBO stood at 1.048 per cent per annum during the month of November 2016.