Loans to the trading and services sectors were in the overdrive, helping Doha’s commercial banks witness more than 13% year-on-year jump in domestic credit to QR1tn at the end of February 2020, according to the Qatar Central Bank (QCB).
The banks’ credit to the trading sector witnessed a stupendous 64.71% year-on-year surge to QR149.8bn, or 15% of the total domestic loans in February 2020.
Of the QR149.8bn credit to trading, as much as QR55.5bn was extended to the commercial agencies, QR39.79bn to non-specified segments, QR9.09bn to automobiles and spare parts, QR6.51bn to food, QR6.27bn to machinery and equipment, QR5.5bn to chemicals and allied products, QR4.76bn to petroleum products and QR4.16bn to building materials and gypsum.
The services sector saw a 36.55% yearly growth in credit to QR296.57bn, which was 30% of the total domestic loans this February.
The Credit to the general services witnessed a 34.33% yearly increase to QR266.59bn, or almost 90% of the total credit to the services sector.
Within the general services, credit to air transport was QR85.05bn, real estate QR74.1bn, others QR29.53bn and hotels QR27.33bn at the end of February 2020.
In the case of financial services, it registered an impressive 60.15% growth to QR29.98bn at the end of February this year. The credit to investment companies stood at QR17bn, investment firms at QR6.64bn and insurance QR1.5bn.
The consumption credit grew 8.69% year-on-year to QR138.03bn, which constituted about 14% of the total domestic credit in February 2020.
The consumption credit to nationals reported 10.36% yearly increase to QR123.28bn; while those to non-Qataris fell 3.38% to QR14.85bn in the review period.
However, the credit offtake in the real estate sector saw a 4.55% year-on-year contraction to QR194.3bn, which was 19% of the total domestic loans in February 2020.
The credit to the industrials sector witnessed a yearly 2.56% contraction to QR25.93bn, which was 3% of the total domestic credit in the period in review.
Within the sector, credit to the heavy industry stood at QR10.16bn, followed by natural gas at QR8.23bn, industrial manufacturing at QR5.21bn and oil at QR2.33bn.
The credit to the public sector saw a marginal dip year-on-year to QR338.03bn, which was about 34% of the total domestic loans in February 2020.
Within the public sector, loans to the government institutions witnessed 22.81% yearly growth to QR177.22bn; while those to semi government entities shrank 21.51% to QR18.5bn and government by 16.5% to QR146.3bn at the end of February this year.
The contracting sector saw a 2.46% fall in credit to QR36.05bn or about 4% of the total domestic loans in the review period.
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