Qatar’s international reserves pick up to $33.8bn in Jan: QNB

Qatar’s international reserves picked up to $33.8bn in January from $31.6bn in December, QNB has said in a new report. In terms of months of import cover, this “recovered” to 6.6 months from 6.1 months previously, well above the IMF recommended minimum of three months for a fixed-exchange rate regime, QNB said in its ‘Monthly Monitor’ yesterday.   Qatar’s oil production picked up slightly to 615,000 barrels per day (bpd) in January, from 611,000bpd in December last year. Brent crude oil prices fell slightly by 2% month on month in January, reaching $55.7/b, it said. “The fall in Brent likely reflects some investor concern on rising US oil production; we forecast Brent crude to average $55/b in 2017,” the bank said.Both Qatar’s exports and imports rose in January, keeping the trade balance steady at $3bn for a second month. Exports grew 5.3% month on month, to $5.6bn, while imports grew by 9.1% month on month, the monthly monitor showed. Japan was Qatar’s largest export market, with a share of 21.8% of total exports, followed by South Korea at 17.3%; China and the US were the two largest countries of origin for imports. Qatar’s Broad money supply (M2) contracted slightly by 0.8% year on year in January, from a 4.4% year on year contraction in December, the report said. This was helped by a smaller than usual contraction in foreign currency deposits which fell by 10.8% year on year in January versus 18.2% the previous month. According to QNB overnight interbank rates picked up to 1.4% in January from 1.21% in December; the three-month interbank rate eased for a second month to 1.64% from 2% while the 1-year interbank rate picked up to 2.15% from 2.10%.The QCB hiked its policy lending and deposit rates in December, in line with the US Fed rate hike; it also reduced the repo rate to 2.25% from 4.50% and lowered the tenor of the instrument from 14 to seven days.Qatar’s bank assets stood at a whopping QR1.3tn in January, QNB said. Bank assets grew 12.8% year on year in January compared to 13.5% in December, while domestic assets grew 10.3% year on year in January, from 11.1% in the previous month driven largely by growth in domestic credit.The report showed Qatar’s bank deposits grew 14.8% year on year in January from 11.8% growth in December last year. The share of non-resident deposits to total deposits continued to increase in January, rising to 27.1% from 25.2% the previous month, the report said.  Private sector deposits grew 2.8% year on year in January while public sector deposits contracted by -13.3% year on year.Non-resident deposits grew 125.4% as the banking sector continued to source foreign funds, QNB said. Loan growth stayed high at 12.1% year on year in January, maintaining the previous month’s growth rate. Loans to the public sector (35.2% of total domestic credit) drove the headline, with growth of 21.8% year on year in January. Private sector loans grew by 7.1% year on year while foreign credit grew by 8.7%, QNB said.