RIYADH: The value of UAE banks’ assets, including acceptance certificates, has increased to 3.66 trillion dirhams ($996.6 billion) in January, recording 11.5 percent growth over 3.29 trillion dirhams recorded during the same period last year, the latest central bank data revealed. 

According to the Central Bank of UAE’s report on Monetary Banking Developments for January 2023, total bank credit increased 4.1 percent annually, or by 73.9 billion dirhams to 1.87 trillion dirhams. This is compared to roughly 1.8 trillion dirhams in January 2022.  

The report also stated that the overall bank deposits climbed 19.2 percent year-on-year to 2.23 trillion dirhams at the end of January, which is an increase of 358.9 billion dirhams, compared to 1.87 trillion dirhams in the same period last year.  

In comparison to the 2.22 trillion dirhams at the end of last December, the CBUAE reported that bank deposits increased monthly by 0.5 percent.   

It attributed this increase to the growth in resident deposits, which increased by 0.8 percent due to rise in government and private sector deposits of 1.7 percent and 1.3 percent.  

The monetary base increased by 3.4 percent to 536.4 billion dirhams at the end of January 2023, from 518.7 billion dirhams at the end of last December. This includes the increases of 2.5 percent, 3.2 percent, 7.8 percent, and 0.6 percent in the issued currency, reserve account, current accounts, overnight deposits for banks and other financial institutions in the central bank, cash notes, and Islamic certificates of deposit.  

The money supply aggregate M1 rose by 2 percent, from 737.4 billion dirhams at the end of December 2022 to 752.1 billion dirhams at the end of January 2023, according to a statement from the central bank.  

In January of last year, the report attributed this to a rise of 5 billion dirhams and 9.7 billion dirhams growth, in monetary deposits and currency in circulation outside of banks.  

Furthermore, the money supply aggregate M2 increased by 1 percent from the end of December 2022 to the end of January 2023, to 1.72 trillion dirhams. M2 grew as M1 climbed, and Quasi-Monetary Deposits increased by 2.2 billion dirhams.