06/10/2020
Majid Al-Khalidi from Riyadh
The volume of bank credit provided to the private sector in Saudi Arabia by the end of last August reached about 1.63 trillion riyals, recording an increase of 14 percent, compared to 1.40 trillion riyals for the same month of 2019, with net lending amounting to 201 billion riyals for the period.
According to the monitoring unit of the reports in Al-Eqtisadiah newspaper, based on the data of the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA), the annual growth of credit in August recorded the highest growth rate since October 2014, which is near six years.
On a monthly basis, the volume of bank credit to the private sector increased by 0.8 percent in August, with net lending amounting to 13.23 billion riyals, for the 14th consecutive month.
Bank credit to the private sector is witnessing an improvement in growth rates after recording a decline in growth rates during 2016 and negative growth during 2017, while 2018 was at growth rates that did not exceed 2.8 percent, while growth for the past year was about 7.3 percent.
The volume of bank lending to the private sector increased from the beginning of 2020 until the end of August of the same year by about 9.6 percent, as the volume of lending by the end of 2019 was at the level of 1.49 trillion riyals. Therefore, the annual growth level of the bank lending process to the private sector by the end of 2020 is expected to be better. The growth rate compared to the past four years.
In addition, the investments of banks in private securities by the end of August amounted to about 65.88 billion riyals, compared to about 54.3 billion riyals for the same period last year, an increase of about 21.3 percent, thus bringing the total bank liabilities of the private sector to about 1.699 trillion riyals.
Bank deposits reached at the end of last August about 1.866 trillion riyals, recording an annual growth of 9.2 percent, while they accounted for about 87.6 percent of the total credit provided to the private sector.
Economic Reports Unit
