Qatar banks maintain growth trajectory in March: QNB

Qatar’s banking sector has grown in all its major parameters in March, registering year-on-year growth in its deposits, credit and assets, QNB’s latest country report has shown.Qatari banks deposit grew 3% and credit by 3.1% year-on-year (y-o-y) in March, while assets growth stood at 4.1% that month, QNB said in its ‘Qatar Monthly Monitor’.Private sector, public sector and non-resident deposits increased 1.7%, 9.2% and 3.4% month-on-month respectively in March, the report showed.Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) foreign exchange reserves scaled up to $49.6bn in February from $49.4bn in January. This equates to nearly nine months of import cover.Broad money supply (M2) declined 4.3% year-on-year in February, while interbank rates remained stable as of April 26.Qatar's sovereign five-year credit default swap spreads (CDS spreads) averaged 67bps, QIBOR three-month interest rates remained stable while Libor three-month interest rates stabilised (as of April 26) after declining in recent months.In terms of Qatar's fiscal and external balances, QNB report said the trade balance “remained healthy” at $3.8bn in February.The fiscal account remained in surplus at 1% of GDP in the third quarter while the current account balance was $4.5bn in the fourth quarter of 2018.According to QNB, Brent crude prices rose to average $67 a barrel in March compared to $64.4 a barrel in February.In March, Qatar’s headline CPI inflation slipped and stood at -1.2% year-on-year, it said.In the fourth quarter of last year, Qatar’s real GDP growth stood at 0.3% year-on-year. Non-hydrocarbon GDP growth was 2.4% year-on-year in Q4, 2018. Industrial production rose 3.3% year-on-year in February in place of 0.6% in January.Qatar’s population increased 2.8% to stand at 2.76mn in March. Denoting higher tourist arrivals into the country, the 5-star and 4-star hotel occupancy rates rose to 64% and 68% respectively in February, QNB said.The 5-star and 4-star hotel occupancy rates were at 61% and 66% respectively in January.