Mubasher: Al Khalij Commercial Bank (Al khaliji) on Tuesday announced a 0.3% year-on-year profit increase for the third quarter of 2018.

The Qatari lender generated a net profit of QAR 134.07 million ($37.20 million) in Q3-18, compared to QAR 133.74 million ($37.11 million) in Q3-17, according to a statement to the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE).

For the first nine months of 2018, Al khaliji’s net profits grew 3.5% to QAR 469.4 million, from QAR 453.6 million in the year-ago period.

The bank’s net impairment loss fell 27.8% to QAR 159 million during the nine-month period ended September, while total assets declined 7.4% to QAR 53.6 billion, with loans and advances dropped 8.9% to QAR 32.7 billion, and clients’ deposits shrank 1.8% to QAR 31.6 billion.

“The bank continues to focus on maintaining an efficient cost base, and consistent with earlier quarters, our costs are 3.4% lower year on year.” chairman and managing director Hamad Bin Faisal Bin Thani Al Thani said.

“We remain focused on credit quality across the Group, and we continue to remain prudent in our provisioning. That said, we have reduced overall impairment charges by 28% year on year” he added.

Al khaliji had announced a profit rise of 4.4% to QAR 165.8 million during Q2-18, with QAR 335.3 million in net profits during H1-18.

By the end of Tuesday’s session, Al khaliji’s stock rose 0.81% to QAR 11.25.