Qatar Central Bank has released its Quarterly Bulletin ( September 2019), which included a wide range of Monetary and Banking statistics for the month of September, in addition to the quarterly economic data of GDP, the State Budget, Inflation and the Balance of Payments. QCB in the past few weeks issued some important statistical data contained in the bulletin sporadically, including the Bank’s International Reserves, Reserves, Liquidity, Domestic and Foreign Assets and Liabilities. Other details of Deposits, Domestic Credit and Money Supply are provided in this report, with some important economic data.
First: Bank deposits: Total bank deposits in September 2019 increased by about QR20.6bn from August to reach the level of QR831.8bn; distributed between Private Sector Deposits, Public Sector Deposits, and Non-resident Deposits. Private Sector Deposits rose to QR 368.7bn from QR362.1bn in August. Public Sector Deposits rose by QR13.5bn to QR265.8bn, while Non-resident deposits rose by half a billion to QR197.2bn.
Second: Total Credit Facilities: The facilities granted by banks grew steadily, and in September 2019 reached QR 995.8bn from QR 948.2bn a year ago. It was noted that while credit granted to the Public Sector declined in September 2019 to the level of QR 284.5bn from QR 339.7bn a year ago – due to government repayment of part of its debt to banks -, credit granted to the private sector grew to QR 634.6bn in September compared to about QR 525.8bn before Year. Credit granted abroad fell to only QR 76.7bn from QR 82.7bn a year earlier. The credit Facilities details of the Local Private sector are as follows:
Credit granted to the Services Sector was the fastest growing, doubling in almost two years since the start of the blockade and ranked first in last September by about QR 161bn from QR 157.5bn in August, and QR 113.8bn in September 2018.
Followed in terms of growth credit trade sector, which rose by about QR7.3bn from last August to QR 128.1bn, compared to about QR71bn a year ago.
Credit of the Real estate sector fell to second place in terms of volume (after the services sector), amounting to QR152.3bn compared to about QR154.8bn at last August.
Retail sector credit fell to third place, slowing growth to QR131.4bn September 2019, compared with QR132bn at last August and QR128.9bn a year earlier. The credit for the Contractors sector came in fourth place, which stabilized in September at QR 35.3bn, but down 2.5bn from September 2018. Industrial credit came in fifth place, rising slightly to QR17bn.
The bulletin also included figures of Money Supply in its various concepts, the most important of which is Narrow Money Supply (M1) and Broad Money Supply (M2).
The Narrow Supply of Money (M1) consists of both public currency in riyals plus demand deposits in riyals for the private sector, government institutions and Semi Government.
The Broad Money Supply (M2) consists of the Narrow Money supply (M1), in addition to Quasi Money, which in turn consists of Time Deposits in riyals, foreign currency deposits to the private sector and government and semi-government institutions. Money supply (M2) at the end of the third quarter of September 2019 rose 1.9 percent from the second quarter to the level of QR569.9bn.With regard to quarterly economic data for both the General Budget and the Balance of Payments, the following is indicated:
1- Total Public Revenues in the second quarter increased to QR 57.2bn from QR55bn in the first quarter. Total Expenses decreased to QR50.4bn from QR 53bn in the first quarter. As a result, the Budget Surplus rose to QR 6.82bn from QR2bn in the first quarter, representing a surplus of 4.2 percent of GDP.
2- The Trade Balance in the second quarter recorded a surplus of QR38.7bn compared to QR 40.9bn in the first quarter.
3- The Balance of Payments achieved a surplus of QR16.4bn in the second quarter compared to QR10.97bn in the first quarter.
