Narrow money supply increases by 1.65%

Muscat: With regard to monetary aggregates at the end of January 2018, narrow money supply (Ml) registered a year-on-year (YoY) growth of 1.6 per cent to OMR5 billion.
Quasi-money (OMR saving and time deposits, certificates of deposit issued by banks, margin deposits and foreign currency denominated deposits) witnessed a higher growth of 5.9 per cent during the period, while broad money supply M2 (Ml plus quasi-money) stood at OMR16.3 billion at the end of January 2018 and grew by 4.5 per cent during the same period.
With respect to the domestic interest rate structure of conventional banks, the weighted average interest rate on OMR deposits increased to 1.667 per cent in January 2018 from 1.582 per cent a year ago, while the weighted average OMR lending rate increased to 5.210 per cent from 5.104 per cent during the same period.
The overnight OMR domestic inter-bank lending rate stood at 1.195 per cent in January 2018, much higher as compared to 0.370 per cent a year ago. The average Repo rate for liquidity injection by the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) stood at 2.060 per cent per annum in January 2018. The overall hardening of interest rates reflects some tightening of liquidity in the banking system.