*Majed Al-Khaldi from Riyadh
The volume of bank credit provided to the private sector at the end of the first quarter of this year were amounted to 1.39 trillion riyals, up 3.11 per cent year on year, compared to 1.35 trillion riyals for the same period last year and net lending for the period amounted to 42.06 billion riyals.
According to an analysis of the report unit in the newspaper "AlEqtisadiah" that based on SAMA data, the volume of bank credit to the private sector in Saudi Arabia grew compared to the previous quarter (fourth quarter of 2018) by 1 per cent, achieving net lending of 14.4 billion riyals, where it was 1.37 trillion riyals by the end of 2018.
According to the analysis, the monthly growth in March was about 0.58 percent, compared to the previous month of February, where net lending reached about 8 billion riyals.
Lending has been growing for the second straight month, where it grew by 0.79 percent in February and a net lending of 10.8 billion riyals.
Growth in lending at the end of the first quarter of this year was 3.11 percent higher since 2016.
The growth of bank credit to the private sector were continued in March on an annualized basis and for the 12th month in a row, which reflects optimism about private sector growth this year.
This comes at a time when the IMF pointed out a few days ago, that the forecasts for non-oil sector growth for the current year 2019 at 2.6 per cent and about 2.9 per cent for the next year 2020.
According to available data, annual growth rates since the middle of last year recorded a clear upward trend in growth rates, with growth rates rising from 0.74 per cent to 3.11 per cent at the end of March, after the negative trend that continued from March 2017 to March 2018.
On the other hand, bank deposits at the end of March 2019 were amounted to about 1.628 trillion riyals, which is registering an annual growth of 1.7 percent with an increase of 27.8 billion riyals.
Demand deposits were accounted for 63.4 percent and 1.03 trillion riyals, compared to 1.01 trillion riyals for the same period last year.
* Economic Reports Unit
