The credit line of Qatar's commercial banks, especially for the private sector, appears to be strong, thus helping in a more than 9% year-on-year growth in their total assets in March 2020, according to Qatar Central Bank (QCB) figures.
Total assets in the country's commercial banking system stood at QR1.59tn with domestic assets constituting QR1.38tn, or 87%, of the total and overseas assets at QR213mn, or 13%, of the total.
Domestic assets witnessed more than 14% year-on-year expansion at the end of March 31, 2020 on a robust growth trajectory especially in the cases of credit, securities portfolio, credit on banks and cash and precious metals.
Total credit of the commercial banks grew more than 12% to QR1.09tn at the end of review period. They constituted about 69% of the total assets of the banks.
Private sector credit registered a more than 17% year-on-year jump to QR713.72bn, or 66%, of the total credit at the end of March this year and public sector credit by more than 4% to QR357.69bn, while non-banking finance credit declined more than 3% to QR14.15bn in the review period.
The banks' securities portfolio amounted to QR195.04bn, which witnessed about 9% year increase in March this year. Domestic portfolio was seen growing more than 10% to QR176.54bn; whereas overseas portfolio shrank 4% to QR18.5bn.
Of the QR195.04bn securities portfolio, debt (conventional) instruments were to the extent of QR115.59bn, which registered about 5% year-on-year increase; and sukuk of QR74.79bn (15%).
Domestic debt was QR102.56bn, or 89%, of the total debt in March 2020. Government debt grew more than 10% year-on-year to QR93.49bn; whereas that of the banks declined 21% to QR5.49bn and others by 15% to QR3.57bn at the end of March 2020.
Of the QR71.7bn domestic Islamic bond, or sukuk, the government’s issuance amounted to QR68.06bn and those from the banks stood at QR3.02bn during the review period.
The commercial banks' domestic claims on banks witnessed more than doubling year-on-year to QR135.58bn in March 2020. Domestic and overseas cla ims stood at QR57.36bn and QR78.22bn respectively.
The banking sector's cash and precious metals were valued at QR17.74bn at the end of March 2020, which almost doubled year-on-year.
The commercial banks’ claim on the central bank increased about 5% year-on-year to QR68.19bn at the end March 31, 2020, of which required reserve amounted to QR39.66bn.
The commercial banks’ investment in subsidiaries and associates amounted to QR44.84bn in March 2020, which however saw more than 2% decline year-on-year.
The commercial banks' domestic other assets amounted to QR29.1bn against QR20.44bn at the end of March 2019.
