Kuwait bank credit grows by 5.9% in July

The total bank credit in Kuwait grew by 5.9 percent despite a strong household borrowing in July compared with the corresponding period of last year, a specialized economic report showed Friday. "Total bank credit growth rose by a mere KD nine million, with total credit reaching KD 27.9 million. Growth from a year ago was 5.9 percent in July, unchanged from last month's revised figure," reads a report by the National Bank of Kuwait (NBK). "June's figure was revised downwards by KD 64 million, with credit growth revised to 5.9 percent from the original 6.2 percent." The NBK noted that the credit growth was slight despite a strong rise in household borrowing. "Despite the small change in total credit, household borrowing was strong in July, gaining KD 91 million on the month and staying close to its monthly average of KD 100 million per month thus far in 2013. Household credit growth remained solid at 18 percent year-on-year (y/y). Of these, installment loans, the bulk of them home loans, were the main drivers of growth, coinciding with the pick-up in the housing market." Meanwhile, the NBK data also showed a decline the bank credit to financial and non-financial sectors. "Credit to the non-financial business sector suffered its first drop since the beginning of the year, which came on the back of the weak revised June figure. Borrowing for this sector was down KD 77 million, on the back of a large drop in credit for the purchase of securities and weaker growth in other sectors. "Borrowing for securities contracted by KD 103 million month-on-month, with the industry and real estate sectors seeing smaller declines. These were partly offset by gains in the trade, construction and "other" sectors. Credit to non-bank financials, meanwhile, continued their deleveraging trend, decreasing by 0.3 percent during July and by 5.3 percent since the beginning of the year." The report pointed out that the drop in the bank credit coincided with a retreat in private sector deposits. "Private sector deposits saw significant withdrawals in July (-KD 478 million). The declines were in dinar sight deposits (-KD 397 million) and foreign currency deposits (-KD 140 million). Smaller gains in savings and time deposits offset some of the decline in overall deposits. As a result, the loan- to-deposit ratio rose by 1.1 percentage points from June. The NBK report also highlighted the contraction of money supply, both the narrow M1 and broader M2. "Consequently, money supply contracted during the month but maintained healthy year-on-year growth. Narrow money (M1) contracted by KD 315 million, following a modest gain last month. Year-on-year growth stood at 14.8 percent." "The broader M2 measure also contracted, seeing its second consecutive monthly decline. M2 was down KD 396 million on the month, but maintained solid growth against a year ago of 10.6 percent." It unveiled that the deposit rates on dinar remained unchanged in July. "Deposit rates on dinar time deposits remained steady at their currently low levels. Average rates remained unchanged for the one-month, three-month, and 12-month at 0.56 percent, 0.74 percent, and 1.12 percent, respectively, while the rate for 6-month deposits saw a decline of one basis point to 0.93 percent."