Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) revealed last week several important indicators on the performance of banks operating in the domestic market during July.
The most important of these indicators, according to a recent CBE report, is the success of the Egyptian banking sector to attract deposits amounting to EGP 39.38bn during July reaching EGP 1.779tr, compared with EGP 1.74tr in June.
Deposits in local currency increased by about EGP 24.5bn to reach EGP 1.399tr in July, compared to EGP 1.375tr in June. In foreign currency, deposits rose by EGP 14.85bn to reach EGP 369.64bn, compared to EGP 364.7bn.
According to CBE, total deposits in banks during July increased by about 18.5%, where there was an increase by 19.5% in local currency and 14.1% in foreign currency.
Non-governmental deposits rose during July by about EGP 20.11bn to reach EGP 1.508tr, compared with EGP 1.488tr in June.
Non-governmental deposits in local currency increased by about EGP 10bn to reach EGP 1.229tr, compared to EGP 1.219tr in June. Non-governmental deposits in foreign currency rose by EGP 10.26bn to reach EGP 278.288bn in July, compared to EGP 268.02bn in June.
Government deposits in banks increased during July by about EGP 19.27bn to reach EGP 271.4bn, compared to EGP 252.15bn in the previous month.
According to CBE, the household sector raised its deposits in local currency at banks by around EGP 16.69bn in July, to reach EGP 959.03bn, compared to EGP 942.33bn in June.
Household sector accounts for about 75.9% of total deposits in banks, about 78.6% of deposits in local currency, and about 63.5% of foreign currency deposits.
CBE figures also revealed a rise in the volume of loans during July by about EGP 8.2bn, to reach EGP 721.8bn, compared to EGP 713.6bn in June.
Private business sector accounts for 61.9% of the total credit facilities granted by banks to non-government bodies in July. And the industry sector alone acquires about 34.4% of those facilities, followed by the services sector by about 25.5% and the trade sector by about 10.4%.
The agriculture sector accounts for only 1.3% of credit facilities. Other sectors, including the household sector, accounted for 28.4% of the total of the facilities.
CBE also stated that non-governmental loans increased by 0.6 percent to reach EGP 651.5bn in July, versus EGP 647.2bn at the end of June.
As for loans in foreign currency, the report indicated they increased by EGP 9.4bn in July, to reach EGP 247.5bn, compared to about EGP 238bn in June. In contrast, loans in local currency fell by EGP 1.2bn to EGP 474.2bn, compared to EGP 475.4bn in June.
According to CBE, loans from banks to the government increased by EGP 3.8bn during July to reach EGP 70.3bn, compared to EGP 66.4bn in June.
As another indicator of the performance of banks during July, CBE figures revealed that private banks increased their investment in treasury bills by EGP 1bn to reach 186.7bn. Foreign banks operating in the domestic market also increased their investment in bills by EGP 1.1bn to reach EGP 23.7bn.
In return, specialised banks reduced their investment in bills by EGP 505m to EGP 3.8bn, and banks specialised in bills reduced their investment by 0.16% to reach EGP 207.5bn.
Security portfolio at banks declined for the first time since the beginning of 2015, to reach EGP 1.015tr by the end of July, compared to EGP 1.016tr by the end of June.
CBE revealed that the banks supported the non-performing loans by EGP 309m in July, to boost this support to EGP 66.358bn, compared to EGP 66.049bn by the end of June.
According to the latest figures issued by CBE, the ratio of non-performing loans at banks is estimated at 8.3% by the end of March, where the coverage ratio of such loans is of 98.3%.
