Doha’s banking sector witnessed a robust about 16% year-on-year expansion in domestic assets in September this year, even as its overseas assets declined more than 4%, according to the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) data.
The domestic assets of Qatar’s banks were about five times larger compared with the foreign assets this September, said the QCB’s latest monthly statement.
Overall, total assets of Qatar’s commercial banks grew about 13% year-on-year to QR1.34tn in September 2017 mainly on faster expansion in credit off-take and securities portfolio.
The domestic assets stood at QR1.11tn, which accounted for about 83% of total assets, whereas foreign assets were to the tune of QR0.23tn, or 17%, at the end of September 30, 2017.
The growing size of the domestic assets indicates the resiliency of the banking sector amid the Gulf crisis that started in June this year.
QCB Governor HE Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud al-Thani had earlier said Qatar’s economy is capable of enduring any financial shock caused by the siege imposed by four Arab countries, stressing that Qatar has enough liquidity to address any shocks.
Among the total assets, total credit portfolio amounted to QR894.94bn, which showed a yearly growth of more than 12%. The domestic credit grew more than 12% to QR800.37bn and foreign credit by about 10% to QR94.57bn. The domestic credit constituted 89% of the total credit, while the foreign credit cornered the remaining 11% share in September 2017.
Of the domestic loans, credit to government reported the fastest annual growth of 60% to QR167.77bn, which accounted for 21% of the credit portfolio. Credit to the realty sector saw more than 9% growth to QR186.76bn, which accounted for 23% of total credit in September 2017. Personal loans rose about 8% to QR123.5bn and those to trading grew about 4% to QR71.04bn.
Of the QR894.94bn credit portfolio, the private sector accounted for QR526.03bn (59% of the total), followed by public sector QR347.12bn (39%) and non-banking financial institutions QR21.79bn (2%).
The commercial banks’ securities portfolio (including sukuk) had seen more than 21% year-on-year growth to QR187.68bn with the domestic portfolio expanding about 23% to QR168.11bn and overseas by 11% to QR19.57bn.
The country’s banking sector saw a 34% expansion in sukuk (Islamic bonds) alone to QR67.53bn, which included QR61.33bn issued by the government and QR3.02bn by banks.
The domestic sukuk witnessed more than 43% growth to QR64.87bn, which was 96% of the total sukuk in September 2017; whereas overseas sukuk saw more than 48% decline to QR2.66bn.
The banking sector’s investments in subsidiaries/associates rose more than 2% to QR46.31bn; even as investments in the real estate sector shrank more than 42% to QR0.94bn.
The commercial banks’ net fixed assets saw about a 29% increase year-on-year to QR6.95bn in September this year.

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