Abu Dhabi, UAE – Bank investments in the UAE hit $147 billion by the end of February, the highest level in the country’s history, a report by the Central Bank of the United Arab Emirates revealed.
The report, issued on Thursday, showed a YoY growth of 15.2 percent in the month from AED470.1 billion ($127 billion) investments in February 2022.
Securities accounted for the majority of bank investments, around 46 percent, or AED 248.9 billion ($67.4 billion) during the reference period.
Held-to-maturity (HTM) securities accounted for 42.5 percent of the total investments, reaching AED230.3 billion ($52.4 billion), a YoY growth of 93.53 percent from AED119 billion ($30 billion) in February 2022, and a 4.7 percent monthly increase from AED220 million ($50 billion) in January 2023.
The bank stock investments reached AED12 billion ($3.3 billion) in February, a rise of approximately 1.7 percent on a monthly basis from around AED11.8 billion ($3.2 billion) in January 2023. However, there was a year-on-year decline of about 29.4 percent from approximately $4.6 billion in the same month last year.