The Sultanate's financial institutions, including Islamic banks, have achieved a robust credit growth in the first four months of this year. Omani banks, which include Islamic banks, have achieved a year-on-year growth of 7.7 percent in total credit at OMR 24.13 billion by April-end of 2018. The average interest rate on total credit grow by 3.3 percent to 5.1 percent by April-end of 2018, from 4.9 percent for the same period of last year, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the Centre.
Deposits of private sector in Omani financial institutions grew by 1.8 percent to OMR14.08 billion by the end of April 2018, from OMR 13.82 billion for the same period of last year. A growth in private sector deposits show that the financial institutions have ample liquidity. The NCSI report also said that the Central Bank of Oman (CBO) has issued currencies to the tune of OMR 1,639.5 million by the end of April 2018, marginally up by 1.3 percent from the same period of last year. However, narrow money supply, which mainly consists of currency, demand deposits and other liquid assets, edged up by 1.2 percent to OMR 5,272.5 million from OMR 5,211.9 million during the period under review. Likewise, broad money, which mainly consists of narrow money and short-term deposits, rose year-on-year by 1 percent to OMR 16,236.1 million by the end of April 2018. The incremental growth in broad money supply was OMR168 million for the last 12-month period. The foreign assets of Central Bank of Oman fell by 10.2 percent to OMR 6,587.2 million by the end of April 2018, compared to the same period of 2017.
The NCSI report also said that the Effective Exchange Rate Index of Omani Rial marginally declined by 0.8 per cent to 101.7 by April-end of 2018, from 102.5 for the same period of 2017. A growth in the index indicates a purchasing power increase for Omani Rial, while a fall indicates a decline in purchasing power of Omani Rial.
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