The private and public sectors witnessed robust credit offtake, leading to Doha’s commercial banks’ assets expand in double digit year-on-year in July 2020 amidst Covid-19 challenges, according to the Qatar Central Bank (QCB) data.
Total assets of commercial banks stood at QR1.6tn with domestic assets constituting QR1.39tn, or 87%, of the total, and overseas assets at QR0.22bn, or 13% of the total.
The domestic assets of the commercial lenders witnessed more than 12% year-on-year expansion at the end of July 31, 2020 on a robust growth trajectory especially in the case of credit, securities portfolio, investments in associates and subsidiaries and other non-specified assets. In the case of overseas assets, the commercial banks witnessed a marginal 0.23% growth.
Total credit of the commercial banks grew about 11% year-on-year to QR1.09tn at the end of review period. They constituted about 68% of the total assets of the banks.
The commercial banks’ domestic credit expanded more than 12% year-on-year to QR1.01trn; whereas overseas credit fell about 7% to QR72.74bn in the review period.
Total private sector credit registered about 11% year-on-year expansion to QR729.69bn, or 67%, of the total credit this July, and public sector credit by about 11% to QR341.9bn, while non-banking finance credit declined about 4% to QR13.98bn in the review period.
The commercial banks' total securities portfolio amounted to QR195.51bn, which saw about 7% year increase in July this year. Domestic portfolio was seen growing at 8% to QR177.29bn and overseas portfolio by a marginal 0.22% to QR18.22bn.
Of the total QR195.51bn total securities portfolio; debt (conventional) was to the extent of QR115.86bn, which rose about 8% year-on-year; and sukuk (Islamic) QR75.39bn (6%).
The domestic debt grew more than 9% on a yearly basis to QR103.32bn or 89% of the total debt in July 2020, while the overseas debt fell 2% to QR12.64bn.
The government debt grew about 14% year-on-year to QR96.68bn; whereas that of the banks declined 4% to QR5.49bn at the end of July 2020.
Of the QR75.39bn domestic sukuk, the government’s issuance amounted to QR68.22bn (up more than 4%) and those from the banks stood at QR3.39bn (46%) during the review period.
The commercial banks’ claim on the central bank increased about 32% year-on-year to QR82.96bn at the end of July 31, 2020, of which required reserve amounted to QR39.46bn that expanded 7% on a yearly basis.
The commercial banks' total claims on banks witnessed more than 5% year-on-year increase to QR131.07bn in July 2020. The domestic and overseas claims stood at QR51.16bn and QR79.91bn; registering 4% and 6% growth respectively.
The commercial banks’ total investment in subsidiaries and associates amounted to QR44.87bn in July 2020, which however saw more than 1% fall year-on-year.
However, their domestic investments reported more than 8% jump to QR6.71bn; while overseas investments were down 3% to QR38.16bn at the end of July 2020.
The commercial banks' cash and precious metals were valued at QR16.42bn at the end of July 2020, which grew more than 16% year-on-year.
The banking sector’s other assets shot up more than 29% year-on-year to QR37.59bn and net fixed assets by about 7% to QR7.45bn at the end of July this year.
