Qatar money supply slips as credit of commercial banks edges up
M2 stood at QR188.18 billion (Dh189.89bn) at the end of June, compared with QR197.13bn a year earlier, the data in a monthly bulletin showed.
Total domestic credit of commercial banks rose to QR215.32bn at the end of June from QR212.89bn in May, said the central bank.
After more than doubling between 2007 and 2008 during a regional economic boom, total domestic credit in Qatar fell in the first two months of the year as the global economic turmoil made an abundance of credit a thing of the past.
The run of declines in annual money supply that began in April is the first fall in at least three years, according to Reuters data.
By comparison, annual money supply had surged at least 45 per cent in each of the first seven months of 2008 as investors piled into riyals on unfulfilled expectations that the Gulf state would revalue its currency.
M1 money supply, which is M2 without quasi money, was down more than 23 per cent year-on-year in June at QR51.45bn, the data showed.
Total credit to the private sector fell 2.33 per cent in June from May, only the second time it has declined in at least three years, according to Reuters data.
But commercial banks’ lending to the public sector rose 15.93 per cent month-on-month, the data showed.
The central bank’s net international reserves stood at QR57.01bn at the end of June, a 4.8 per cent increase compared with the previous month. Gulf economies – heavily reliant on oil and gas revenues – had surged as oil prices rallied to peaks of almost $150 a barrel last July. They slowed down as the price of crude slumped to close to $30 a barrel earlier this year.
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