Various banks of Saudi Arabia have increased disbursement of loans by $77.1 billion in the second quarter of this year, according to a report by the Saudi Central Bank.
The SAMA data showed that the value of Saudi banks’ aggregate loan portfolio totaled $537 billion at the end of the second quarter of 2022, up 14.8 percent from the year before and up 4 percent from the previous quarter.
The annual growth in bank loans dropped to a negative in 2017 and remained below zero until the third quarter of 2018. However, bank loans have been seeing an upward trend ever since, according to the SAMA report.
From the third quarter of 2018 until the end of 2019, the value of Saudi bank loans grew at an average rate of 3.7 percent year on year; between 2020 and the second quarter of this year, it grew at an average rate of 14.8 percent year on year.
Miscellaneous economic activity was the dominating segment of kingdom’s loans, which acquired 52 percent of the total loans this quarter.
According to the Kingdom’s Unified National Platform, the Kingdom has been moving toward the Saudi Vision 2030 by developing the trade sector and ensuring its sustainability.
“The Ministry of Commerce’s mission focuses on improving the business environment in Saudi Arabia through enacting, developing and supervising the implementation of flexible and fair trade policies and regulations.”
While total bank loans grew this quarter, two economic activities saw a quarterly decline in bank credit in the second quarter of this year: manufacturing and processing and transport and communication.
Compared to the previous quarter, the sector dropped from 2.1 percent of total loans in the first quarter to 1.9 percent, showed the SAMA bulletin.
