(MENAFN- Kuwait News Agency (KUNA)) KUWAIT, Oct 3 (KUNA) -- Credit offered by the Kuwaiti banking sector in July hit 3.5 percent year-on-year (y/y), owing to a strong house lending, a report has said.
Growth of household lending in July accelerated to 7.2 percent y/y, as personal facilities, excluding securities lending, added a net KD 119 million (USD 392 million) during the month, the latest report by the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) added on Tuesday.
The gains continued to come from installment loans, while consumer loans were off, contracting by 5.3 percent y/y, it noted.
According to the report, business credit (excluding nonbanks) dropped by KD 281 million (USD 927 million) with growth falling to 1.8 percent y/y. The largest decline was in lending for the purchase of securities, which dropped by KD 211 million (USD 696 million).
Credit to the construction and oil and gas sectors saw noticeable declines, with the former contracting by 5.7 percent y/y.
Year-to-date, lending to the real estate sector hit 8.1 percent, after it saw its borrowing contract by 3.6 percent during 2016.
As for private deposits, they fell in July by KD 252 million (USD 831 million). The banking system's liquid reserves, or "excess liquidity", were steady in July at 7.5 percent of bank assets. Bank reserves increased by KD 62 million (USD 204 million) to KD 4.7 billion (USD 15 billion), the NBK report noted.
Domestic interest rates rose in July in line with June's increase of the overnight repo rate by 25 basis points (bps,) and the 3-month interbank rate was up 9 bps in July.
Customer deposit rates also moved up by 7-16 bps during the month. They are now up by 36-48 bps since December 2016, the report concluded. (end) mfs.ht.msa
Legal Disclaimer:
MENAFN provides the information “as is” without warranty of any kind. We do not accept any responsibility or liability for the accuracy, content, images, videos, licenses, completeness, legality, or reliability of the information contained in this article. If you have any complaints or copyright issues related to this article, kindly contact the provider above.