Commercial banks operating within Saudi Arabia’s banking system provided financing facilities for private sector imports worth SAR44,184 billion in the third quarter of 2023. That is according to the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia‘s statistical bulletin for November 2023. Financing facilities for private sector imports increased annually by 10.2 percent, amounting to approximately SAR4,079 billion, compared to SAR40,105 billion in 2022.
Growth and facilities
Saudi banks also achieved quarterly growth estimated at 13.1 percent, with a SAR5,132 billion increase, compared to SAR39,052 billion in the second quarter of 2023. Meanwhile, the value of financing facilities for November 2023 amounted to about SAR13,970 billion.
The financing facilities included seven categories of imports including food, textiles and clothing, building materials, cars, machines, devices, and other goods. The other goods category received the highest financing value at SAR21,558 billion, approximately 49 percent of the total. Car imports came second, with a value of SAR12 billion, at 27 percent of the total. Following that came building materials, with a value of SAR4,123 billion, at approximately 9 percent of the total. Meanwhile, food came fourth, with a value of SAR2,719 billion, at approximately 6.2 percent. Finally, machinery came last with a financing value of SAR2,586 billion, at approximately 6 percent.
Read: European banks enter 2024 bolstered by strong profit growth
Sector imports
Regarding appliances and textiles and clothing, the value of their financing facilities amounted to SAR1,034 billion and SAR165 million, respectively. Hence, they made up about 2 percent and 0.4 percent of the total, respectively.
Notably, private sector import financing of food items includes ‘Other food items’ worth SAR1,583 billion, grains worth SAR814 million, and livestock and meat worth SAR206 million. Meanwhile, imports of sugar, tea and coffee recorded SAR103 million and fruits and vegetables recorded SAR12 million.
Bank profits
Earlier, the Central Bank of Saudi Arabia issued its monthly bulletin for September 2023. The bulletin included banks’ liabilities from the public sector, bank profits in Saudi Arabia, and net foreign assets. Notably, Saudi banks recorded profits amounting to SAR7.1 billion during September, a 22.4 percent increase.
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