Mubasher: Deposits of banks operating in Qatar fell 2.4% in January, the Qatar Central Bank’s (QCB) data showed on Thursday.

Total deposits declined to QAR 803.17 billion ($220.63billion) in the first month of 2018, down from QAR 823.03 billion ($226.09 billion) in the same period a year earlier.

Year-on-year, lenders' deposits went up 9.11%, according to the QCB's data.

The central bank ascribed the drop of deposits to the retreat of government's support to the Qatari banks, in addition to a decrease in deposits of foreign and non-bank financial institutions.

Meanwhile, the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas (LNG) has injected around $43 billion in 2017 as an action to support Qatari banks after a Saudi-led boycott resulted in a sharp drop in deposits, S&P Global Ratings said in a report released Tuesday.

The public sector’s overall deposits went down 5.5% to QAR 305.43 billion in January against QAR 323.36 billion by the end of December.

Foreign deposits at banks operating in the world's richest country per capita inched down 0.06% to QAR 137.04 billion versus QAR 137.13 billion during the same period.