12/12/2018
* Majed Al-Khalidi from Riyadh
The private sector continued to borrow from banks operating in Saudi Arabia are reaching about 45.16 billion riyals from the beginning of the year until last October with growth of 3.4 percent.
Thus, the total volume of borrowing to the private sector by the end of October were amounted to 1.385 trillion riyals, compared to 1.339 trillion riyals by the end of last year 2017.
According to the analysis of the report unit in the newspaper AlEqtisadiah and based on data from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency "SAMA," the volume of bank credit to the private sector in Saudi Arabia registered a growth for the seventh month in a row.
Credit to the private sector in October rose 1.67 percent year-on-year, which is marking it the highest growth in two years, compared to the previous month by 0.23 percent, an increase of 3.2 billion riyals.
The improvement in lending growth to the private sector in the past months comes after a long period of fluctuation in negative and positive growth rates.
Private lending from total deposits stood at 89.2 percent, compared to 88.66 percent for the same period last year, up 57 basis points.
Bank deposits stood at 1.62 trillion riyals at the end of October, up 1.2 percent from the same period last year, of which 1.01 trillion riyals demand deposits at 62.8%.
The local banks raised their balance of government bonds to about 301.08 billion riyals by the end of October, compared to 269.6 billion riyals at the end of September with a rise of 1.5 percent, equivalent to 4.4 billion riyals, and a growth-since the beginning of the year-by 18.3 percent, equivalent to 46.66 billion riyals.
* Economic Reports Unit
