By: Eman Ghaly  

Mubasher: Bank lending in Qatar hit an all-time high in February 2018, Qatar Central Bank (QCB) said.

Loans increased 7.4% to QAR 932.56 billion ($256.17 billion) in the second month of 2018, compared to QAR 868.05 billion ($235.45 billion) in the same month a year earlier, according to the QCB's statement on Tuesday. 

Month-on-month, loans rose 1.3% to QAR 920.97 billion ($252.99 billion), the statement showed.

The central bank attributed the monthly growth in lending to the increase in public sector's loans, which inched up 0.4% to QAR 534.59 billion in February from QAR 532.69 billion in the previous month.

Meanwhile, bank credit to non-banking financial institutions operating in the world’s biggest LNG exporter went down 0.3% to QAR 20.67 billion in February versus QAR 20.73 billion in the previous month.

Translated by: Kholoud Mohamed Hussein