The value of credit facilities granted by banks operating in the local market to their customers increased by EGP 60.5bn to reach EGP 1.4869tn, from July 2017 to January 2018, according to the Central Bank of Egypt (CBE).
Credit facilities refer to the sum of loans granted by banks to clients, along with letters of credit and letters of guarantee granted to cover importation.
Total facilities directed to the government reached EGP 385.5bn at the end of January, including EGP 177.8bn in local currency and EGP 207.6bn in foreign currencies.
Meanwhile, the total non-government facilities amounted to about EGP 1.101tn, including EGP 771bn and EGP 330.377bn in foreign currencies.
The report said that the private business sector received 61.3% of total credit facilities provided by banks through the end of January 2018.
About 35.4% of credit facilities were granted to the industrial sector, followed by the services sector that took 29.2%, then trade with 9.7%.
As usual, the agricultural sector received the lowest percentage of credit facilities granted by banks to different economic sectors, accounting for only 1.1% of total facilities through the end of January 2018.
The report noted that several other sectors, of which only the household sector was named, accounted for 24.6% of the total credit facilities.
The CBE had earlier noted that loans at banks increased by EGP 23bn at the end of January 2018 to EGP 1.476tn, up from EGP 1.453tn in December 2017.
The bank had noted that the private sector’s loans in local and foreign currencies increased by EGP 11bn to EGP 1.09tn at the end of January, up from EGP 1.079tn in December 2017.
