Narrow money stock (Ml) up by 1.6 per cent

MUSCAT: With regard to monetary aggregates as at the end of January 2018, narrow money stock (Ml) registered a year-on-year (YOY) growth of 1.6 per cent to RO 5 billion.

Quasi-money (Rial Omani saving and time deposits, certificates of deposit issued by banks, margin deposits and foreign currency denominated deposits) witnessed a higher growth of 5.9 per cent during the period.

Broad money supply M2 (Ml plus quasi-money) stood at RO 16.3 billion as at the end of January 2018 and grew by 4.5 per cent during the same period.

In respect of domestic interest rate structure of conventional banks, the weighted average interest rate on RO deposits increased to 1.667 per cent in January 2018 from 1.582 per cent a year ago while the weighted average RO lending rate increased to 5.210 per cent from 5.104 per cent during the same period.

The overnight Rial Omani domestic inter-bank lending rate stood at 1.195 per cent in January 2018, much higher as compared to 0.370 per cent a year ago.

The average Repo rate for liquidity injection by the CBO stood at 2.060 per cent per annum during the month of January 2018.

The overall hardening of interest rates reflects some tightening of liquidity in the banking system.