KUWAIT: The Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) announced on Tuesday that the broad money supply (M2) decreased by 0.4 percent to KD 39.9 billion (around $131 billion) in July on a monthly basis. The bank’s Economic Research Department told KUNA that private sector deposits in local banks in dinars decreased by 0.3 percent to KD 36.5 billion (around $120.6 billion).

It added that private sector deposits in foreign currencies decreased by 1.2 percent to KD 1.82 billion (around $6 billion), while the total balances of local banks’ claims on the CBK in dinars, represented by CBK bonds, decreased by 6.8 percent to KD 2.7 billion (around $8.9 billion). The total assets of local banks decreased by 0.7 percent in July to KD 87.9 billion (about $290 billion), while net foreign assets of local banks increased by 1 percent to KD 13.4 billion (about $44 billion).

It stated that time deposits at the Central Bank increased by 9.7 percent to KD 1.1 billion (about $3.6 billion) in July, while cash credit facilities (loans) decreased by 0.8 percent to KD 55.3 billion (about $182.4 billion). It indicated that the average interest rates on one-year treasury bonds stabilized at 4.625 percent in July, while financing of Kuwaiti imports increased by 24 percent to KD 786.4 million (about $2.5 billion). The average exchange rate of the US dollar against the dinar decreased by 0.2 percent to 305.9 fils.

Money supply in its narrow sense means the volume of current transactions and includes paper and metal currencies that people use in their daily transactions and money deposited in banks in the form of current accounts or demand deposits, while money supply in its broad sense includes, in addition to current money, time deposit accounts and savings accounts. — KUNA