Doha: Qatar’s banking sector showed resilience and expansion as the total assets of the sector increased by 1 percent year-to-date (YTD) in May 2025, reaching QR2.067 trillion.
Meanwhile the total assets edged lower by 0.2 percent month-on-month (M-o-M) in May.
The total assets moved up by 1 percent in 2025 compared to a growth of 3.9 percent in 2024.
The assets grew by an average 5.7 percent over the past five years (2020-2024).
The liquid assets to total assets stood at healthy 30 percent both in May and April 2025, according to a report released by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS).
The monthly report highlighted the total assets, loans, and deposits in May this year.
The sector’s loans were marginally down by 0.5 percent MoM to reach QR1,377.8bn in May this year.
This decrease in loans was mainly due to a decline of 2.8 percent in the public sector loans.
The loans went up by 2.3 percent in 2025 compared to growth of 4.6% in last year.
While loans grew by an average 5.4 percent over the past five years (2020-2024) and the loan provisions to gross loans remained flat at 4 percent in May 2025 versus April this year.
The loan book of Qatar’s banks witnessed a 2.3 percent increase year-to-date (YTD) in 2025 and 0.5 percent decline on monthly basis.
The deposits by commercial banks declined by 0.9 percent during May 2025 to reach QR1,033.2bn.
The deposits drop in May this year was mainly due to fall by 0.7 percent in public sector deposits and dip by 1.5 percent in non-resident deposits.
The deposits inched up 0.6 percent in May 2025, compared to an increase by 4.1 percent in 2024.
They grew by an average 3.9% over the past five years (2020-2024).
In May 2025, the public sector deposits contributed 35.1 percent to the total deposits, private sector (46 percent) and non-resident (18.9 percent).
The overall loan book expansion in May was primarily driven by increased lending to both the public and private sectors.
Public sector loans grew by 3.2 percent YTD and recorded a decline of 2.8 percent MoM.
Within this category, loans to the government segment accounted for 6.9 percent of total public sector loans.
The government institutions saw an increase of 2.5 percent YTD and 0.1 percent MoM.
However, loans to semi-government institutions declined by 10.4 percent YTD, and grew by 1.4 percent MoM in May this year.
The private sector loans also increased by 2.2 percent YTD in May and grew by 0.6 percent on monthly basis.
The key drivers of private sector loan growth included the contractors, real estate, consumption and others and services segments.
The contractors segment saw an impressive increase of 9 percent YTD and grew by 0.9 percent MoM.
The real estate sector saw a growth of 2.6 percent YTD and increase of 1 percent MoM.
Meanwhile, loans to general trade, consumption and others and services sectors increased by 3.4 percent, 0.8 percent, and 1.3 percent YTD.
The total domestic credit facilities saw an increase by 2.5 percent YTD but the lending activities outside Qatar saw a decline of loans by 1.2 percent YTD.
The loans to deposits ratio moved up to 133.3 percent as of May 2025.
The loan provisions to gross loans remained flat at 4 percent as at May this year versus April 2025.
While the loan provisions have increased from 2.4 percent in 2020 to 4 percent in 2023 and stood at 4 percent as of May this year as banks have been provisioning for Stage 2 and Stage 3 Loans mainly emanating from contracting and real estate sectors, the data revealed.
On the deposits side, the public sector deposits increased by 1.6 percent YTD and recorded a decline of 0.7 percent month-on-month.
The government segment of the public sector deposits saw a growth of 0.8 percent in 2025 and MoM.
The government institutions grew 3.6 percent over the year and declined by 1.4 percent MoM.
