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Review of Banking and Monetary Developments – March 20235/10/2023 8:00:00 PMReview of Banking and Monetary Developments – March 2023The nominal GDP, as per the preliminary data released by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), showed an increase of 30.0 percent at end of the fourth quarter of 2022 over the same period of 2021.<p>​<span style="text-align:justify;">The nominal GDP, as per the preliminary data released by National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI), showed an increase of 30.0  </span><span style="text-align:justify;">percent at end of</span><span style="text-align:justify;"> </span><span style="text-align:justify;">the fourth </span><span style="text-align:justify;"> </span><span style="text-align:justify;">quarter of </span><span style="text-align:justify;">202</span><span style="text-align:justify;">2 over the same period of 2021. The expansion was driven by increase in output of the hydrocarbon sector by 61.6 percent and non-hydrocarbon sector by 16.9 percent. As for the real GDP, it demonstrates an increase of 4.3 percent during the same period under discussion. Similiarly, this expansion was driven by 10.2 percent of hydrocarbon sector and 1.6 percent of non-hydrocarbon sector. The Omani oil average price at end of March </span><span style="text-align:justify;">2023</span><span style="text-align:justify;"> </span><span style="text-align:justify;">at $81.5 per barrel was higher by 3.2 percent than that in March </span><span style="text-align:justify;">2022</span><span style="text-align:justify;">. The average daily oil production at 1063.8 thousand barrels as of March </span><span style="text-align:justify;">2023</span><span style="text-align:justify;"> </span><span style="text-align:justify;">increased by 2.6 percent. The Sultanate's average Consumer Price Index (CPI) showed a Y-o-Y inflation of 1.8 percent as of March 2023.</span></p><p style="text-align:justify;">Other depository corporations (ODCs) consist of conventional and Islamic banks in Oman. Total outstanding credit extended by ODCs grew by 6.9  percent to OMR 29.9 billion at the end of March 2023, with credit to the private sector demonstrating an increase of  6.8 percent (Y-o-Y) to reach OMR 25.1 billion.<br></p><p style="text-align:justify;">Non-financial corporations received the highest share of the total private sector credit at approximately 46.3 percent at end-Mar 2023, followed by household sector at 44.4  percent. The share of financial corporations was 5.6 percent while other sectors received the remaining 3.7 percent of total private sector credit as at end- March 2023. <br></p><p style="text-align:justify;">Total deposits held with ODCs registered a Y-o-Y significant growth of 4.6 percent to reach OMR 27.1  billion at the end of March 2023. Total private sector deposits increased by 1.4 percent to OMR 17.7 billion. In terms of  sector-wise composition of private sector deposits, the biggest contribution is from household deposits at 52.1  percent, followed by non-financial corporations at 28.7 percent, financial corporations at 16.4 percent and other sectors at 2.8 percent. <br></p><p style="text-align:justify;">The combined balance sheet of conventional banks showed a Y-o-Y growth of 5.6  percent in total outstanding credit as of end-March 2023. Credit to the private sector increased by 4.8 percent to reach OMR 19.9 billion while their overall investments in securities witnessed a decline by 14.6 percent  to OMR 4.5 billion at end- March 2023. Investment in Government Development Bonds marginally increase by 2.7  percent to OMR 2.2 billion, while foreign securities inceased by 23.7  percent to OMR 0.9 billion, at the end of March  2023. On the liabilities side, aggregate deposits held with the conventional banks inceased by 3.4 percent Y-o-Y to OMR 22.2 billion at end-March 2023. Government deposits with conventional banks witnessed an increase of 9.4 percent at OMR 5.3 billion, and deposits of public enterprises increased by 24.8 percent to OMR 1.8 billion. On the other hand, private sector deposits, which accounted for 65.9 percent of total deposits with conventional banks, decreased by 0.2 percent as of March 2023 to reach OMR 14.6 billion. <br></p><p style="text-align:justify;">The total assets of Islamic Banks and Windows increased by 10.0 percent on a Y-o-Y basis to  OMR 6.6 billion and constituted about 16.4 percent of the banking system's assets  at end-March 2023. Islamic banking entities provided financing of OMR 5.6 billion at the end of March 2023, recording a growth of 13.4 percent over that a year ago. Total deposits held with Islamic banks and windows increased by 10.3 percent to OMR 4.9 billion. <br></p><p style="text-align:justify;">Among the indicators of monetary aggregates, broad money supply M2 at end-March 2023 increased slightly by 2.4 percent to reach OMR 21.0  billion. The narrow money (M1) increased slightly by 0.3 percent, the increase in M2 is attributed to the 3.3 percent increase in quasi-money (Rial Omani saving and time deposits, certificates of deposit issued by banks, margin deposits and foreign currency denominated deposits). Looking at components of narrow money (M1) during the same period, currency with the public fell by 5.2 percent, while demand deposit in Rial Omani increased  by 1.9 percent .<br></p><p style="text-align:justify;">The weighted average interest rate on OMR deposits with conventional banks witnessed an increase from 1.923 percent at end-March  2022 to 2.124 percent at end-March 2023, and the weighted average lending rate decreased from 5.485 percent to 5.381 percent over the same period. Meanwhile, the overnight Rial Omani domestic inter-bank lending rate rose to 5.073 percent in March 2023 from 4.409 percent a year ago. This is an outcome of the increase in the average Repo rate for liquidity injection by the CBO to 5.323 percent from 0.500 percent a year ago, moving with US Fderal Reserve.<br></p>0x010100C568DB52D9D0A14D9B2FDCC96666E9F2007948130EC3DB064584E219954237AF3900075E4FF44B3F64489802BE694C5C6FB70300A9BCF8A0432A87429120A5B0A0EDBFF9

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