Private business accounts for 63.2% of credit facilities end of March: CBE report

By Abdel Qader Ramadan

The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) announced in its monthly report that total credit facilities granted from banks to customers increased by EGP 14bn (2.6%) from July to March of the 2013-2014 fiscal year.

The report, published on Sunday, stated that the private business sector accounted for 63.2% of total non-government allocated credit facilities at the end of March.

March figures indicate that the industry received 34.2% of non-governmental credit facilities at EGP 113.8bn, followed by the services sector at 25.3% at LE86.1bn, while trade took 11.1% at EGP 46.3bn and agriculture 1.3% at EGP 4.9bn.

Total balances of credit facilities in the first quarter of 2014 increased by EGP 12.8bn to EGP 563.1bn at the end of March, compared to EGP 550.3bn in December 2013.

The government’s balance of credit facilities decreased at the end of March to EGP 38.6bn as compared to EGP 41.6bn in December, caused by the drop in balance of local currency.

Local currency balance was EGP 11.7bn in March compared to EGP 12.1bn in December. Foreign currency in March was EGP 26.9bn compared to EGP 29.5bn in December.

The balance of non-governmental credit facilities rose to EGP 524.5bn at the end of March compared with EGP 508.7bn in December.

The balance of non-governmental credit facilities in domestic currency rose to EGP 388.3bn at the end of March as compared to EGP 374bn at the end of December of last year.

The balances of non-government credit facilities in foreign currency rose to EGP 136.2bn at the end of March compared to EGP 134.7bn at the end of December of last year.

The primary sectors benefiting from non-government credit facilities of foreign currency included: industry, with facilities of EGP 65.6bn at the of March compared to EGP 64bn in February; trade, with EGP 12bn in March versus EGP 11.19bn in February; agriculture, with EGP 1.7bn versus EGP 1.6bn in February; services, with EGP 46.7bn versus EGP 47 in February; the household sector, with EGP 2bn in both March and February; and the external sector, with EGP 8.1bn versus EGP 8.9bn in February.

 

*Government and non-government credit facilities allocations

*Values in millions of EGP