Credit granted by Oman’s ODCs reaches OMR29.80bn

Muscat: The total balance of credit granted by Oman’s conventional and Islamic banks, or what is known as Other Depository Corporations (ODCs), increased by 6.8 per cent to reach OMR29.80 billion at the end of February 2023.

About credit granted to the private sector, it recorded a growth of 5.3 per cent, to reach OMR24.80 billion at the end of last February.

The data relating to its distribution among various sectors indicated that non-financial companies acquired the largest share, which amounted to 46.1 per cent, followed by the individual sector at 44.7 per cent, while the remaining percentage was distributed to the financial companies sector at 5.6 per cent, and other sectors at 3.7 per cent.

Total deposits with the banking sector recorded a growth of 2.9 per cent, to reach OMR26.60 billion at the end of February.

When looking at the distribution of the total deposit base within this total, private sector deposits with the banking system increased by 0.53 per cent to reach OMR17.50 billion. The individual sector accounted for the largest share of the total deposit base, which amounted to about 51.8 percent, followed by the non-financial companies sector and the financial companies sector with a share of 28.6 percent. and 16.8 percent, respectively, while the remaining 2.8 percent was distributed among other sectors.

On the other hand, the total balance of credit granted by conventional commercial banks increased by 5.4 percent at the end of February 2023, while credit extended to the private sector increased by 2.9 percent to reach OMR19.70 billion.

The total investments of conventional commercial banks in securities decreased by 14 percent to reach about OMR4.50 billion at the end of last February.

Within this item, investment in government development bonds (GDBs) increased by 1.7 percent, compared to the same period in 2022, to reach OMR2.20 billion.

As for the investments of conventional banks in foreign securities, they increased by 31.7 percent to OMR1.10 billion at the end of last February.

On the liabilities side, total deposits with conventional commercial banks increased by 1.5 percent to reach MR21.70 billion at the end of last February.