Qatar Banks Record 5.5% Lending Growth In Q2
(MENAFN- The Peninsula)
Deepak John
|
The Peninsula
Doha: Banks in Qatar witnessed a healthy growth in lending and return on equity (RoE) during the second quarter (Q2) of this year, according to Kamco Invest.
The data from GCC central banks highlighted the resilience of regional economies with continued growth in credit facilities. Outstanding credit facilities in the region continued to show growth during Q2-2024.
The gains as compared to last year were solid with all countries witnessing healthy growth in lending. Saudi Arabia witnessed a double-digit y-o-y growth in outstanding credit facilities at 11.4% while banks in Qatar showed a y-o-y growth of 5.5%. The lending growth in the region reflected a strong project pipeline with aggregate contract awards of $51.7bn in the GCC during Q2-2024.
The aggregate return on equity for the GCC banking sector continued to show improvement during Q2-2024 reaching one of the highest levels over the last few years at 13.6% as compared to 13.5% at the end of Q1-2024, reaching pre-pandemic levels.
At the country level, UAE-listed banks once again topped in the region with the highest RoE at the end of Q2-2024 at 16.9% followed by Saudi Arabian and Qatari banks with RoEs of 12.8%. ROEs for Kuwaiti banks stayed elevated at a double-digit level of 10.4% while Bahraini and Omani banks reported RoEs at 9.6% and 9%, respectively, the report further said.
Aggregate lending by listed banks in the GCC continued to show q-o-q growth during Q2-2024 backed by growth in almost all GCC markets. Aggregate gross loans reached a new record high of $2.1 trillion after registering a four-quarter high q-o-q growth of 2.1% while the y-o-y growth came in at 7.9%. Banks in UAE reported the biggest q-o-q gross loan growth during Q2-2024 at 3.4% mainly led by strong retail lending.
Gross loans growth for Saudi-listed banks came in next at 3.1% to reach $711.1bn during Q2-2024 reflecting healthy growth in lending in almost all sectors. Omani and Kuwait banks reported lending growth of around 2% while Qatari banks registered a growth of 1.3%.
Customer deposits reported by listed banks in Kuwait registered the strongest q-o-q growth during Q2-2024 at 1.7% to reach $302.5bn as compared to $297.6bn in the previous quarter. Omani and Qatari banks also reported growth of 1.5% and 0.5%, respectively, while UAE-listed banks showed flattish growth in customer deposits that reached $803.1bn at the end of Q2-2024, the highest in the GCC.
The aggregate loan-to-deposit ratio for the GCC banking sector witnessed a strong increase during the quarter and reached above the 80% mark at 81.5%. The growth was led by a higher loan-to-deposit ratio for all the country aggregates in the GCC.
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