Kuwait's loan growth hit 6.4%

At 6.4 percent, Kuwait's loan growth was the highest this year and the strongest since November 2009. Loan growth strengthened by 6.4 percent y-o-y to KWD 27.8 billion in May 2013, higher than the 5.8 percent y-o-y registered in April 2013, Kuwait Finance House (KFH), also known as Baitak, reported Friday. Personal loans, which accounted for 37.8 percent of total loans outstanding, stood strong at 12.4 percent y-o-y to KWD 10.5 billion in May 2013. Driving personal loans were stronger installment loans growth of 18.8 percent y-o-y to KWD 6.4 billion during the month. Meanwhile, consumer loans growth sustained at 16.2 percent y-o-y in May 2013, albeit a tad lower compared to April 2013's 17.2 percent y-o-y. On the business front, real estate loans, which contributed to 26.2 percent of total loans outstanding, grew by 6.9 percent y-o-y to KWD 7.3 billion in May 2013. Construction loan growth more than doubled to 11.3 percent y-o-y during the month, up from 5.5 percent y-o-y in April 2013. In contrast, trade and industry loan growth moderated to 2.7 percent y-o-y and 0.7 percent y-o-y respectively in May 2013. Loans to the non-bank financial institutions continued to decline by 17.3 percent y-o-y in May 2013. Taking a more conservative view, loan growth ranged between 5.0 percent and 6.0 percent in 2013, underpinned by domestic consumption following a 25 percent rise in public sector salaries and a 12.5 percent increase in state pensions announced in 2012. On funding, total deposits grew by 10.2 percent y-o-y to KWD 35.6 billion in May 2013, up from 9.3 percent y-o-y in April 2013. Private sector deposits grew by 10.5 percent y-o-y to KWD 30.6 billion during the month, while government deposits increased by 6.3 percent y-o-y to KWD 4.8 billion. As such, Kuwait's banking system is highly liquid, with loan-to-deposit (LD) ratio of 78.16 percent in May 2013 vs. 78.9 percent in April 2013. This translated into excess liquidity for the banking system of KWD 7.77 billion in May 2013, an increase from KWD 7.36 billion in April 2013.