The Sultanate’s financial institutions, including Islamic banks, have achieved a robust credit growth in the first four months of this year.

The Omani banks, which include Islamic banks, have achieved a year-on-year growth of 7.7 per cent in total credit at OMR24.13 billion by the end of April 2018.

The average interest rate on total credit grow by 3.3 per cent to 5.1 per cent by April-end of 2018, from 4.9 per cent for the same period of last year, according to the latest monthly statistics released by the National Centre for Statistics and Information (NCSI).

Deposits of private sector in Omani financial institutions grew by 1.8 per cent to OMR14.08 billion at the end of April 2018, from OMR13.82 billion for the same period of last year. A growth in private sector deposits show that the financial institutions have ample liquidity.

However, narrow money supply, which mainly consists of currency, demand deposits and other liquid assets, edged up by 1.2 per cent to OMR5,272.50 million from OMR5,211.90 million during the period under review. Likewise, broad money, which mainly consists of narrow money and short-term deposits, rose year-on-year by one per cent to OMR16,236.10 million at the end of April 2018. The incremental growth in broad money supply was OMR168 million for the last 12-month period.

The foreign assets of Central Bank of Oman fell by 10.2 per cent to OMR6,587.20 million at the end of April 2018, compared to the same period of 2017.

The NCSI report also said that the Effective Exchange Rate Index of Omani Rial marginally declined by 0.8 per cent to 101.7 by April-end of 2018, from 102.5 for the same period of 2017. A growth in the index indicates a purchasing power increase for Omani Rial while a fall indicates a decline in purchasing power of Omani Rial.