25/07/2018
*Majed Al Khalidi from Riyadh
The banking credit granted to the trade sector grew 3.6 percent in the first quarter of this year on a yearly basis.
The volume of credit granted to the sector were amounted to 314.07 billion riyals, compared to 303.07 billion riyals for the same period last year, a difference of about 10.99 billion riyals. It grew 0.5 per cent from the previous quarter.
According to the analysis of the unit of reports in the newspaper "Al-Eqtisadiah" based on SAMA data, the acquisition of the commercial sector of the total private lending portfolio in banks operating in Saudi Arabia increased 22.54%, compared to 21.55% for the same period of the past year, followed by the industrial and production sector (11.3%).
The commercial sector recorded growth in lending rates during the fourth quarter of the previous year 2017 (the previous quarter) by 4.10 percent year-on-year. Thus, the volume of lending increased to about SR 12.3 billion during the period.
Lending growth in 2016 was 5.12 per cent and was 11.68 per cent in 2015.
The bank's credit to the total private sector activities at the end of the first quarter reached SR1.39 trillion, which is recording a negative growth of 0.9 percent compared to the same period last year that was affected by the decline in lending to the construction sector as well as the industrial sector.
The volume of credit to the construction sector was amounted to 94.37 billion riyals compared to 101.4 billion riyals for the same period last year. While, the volume of loans granted to the industrial sector was amounted to 157.5 billion riyals compared to 176.16 billion riyals for the same period.
* Economic Reports Unit
