Mubasher: Net foreign assets in the Kuwaiti banking sector rose by 5.7% year-on-year to reach KWD 17.38 billion ($57.38 billion) by end of August, from KWD 16.44 billion ($54.28 billion).
On a monthly basis, net foreign assets decreased by 0.3% from KWD 17.42 billion in June, data released by the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) showed on Thursday.
The monthly statistics bulletin further revealed that the CBK’s total assets had increased 15.2% year-on-year to KWD 10.53 billion in August from KWD 9.14 billion. On a month-on-month basis, assets grew 0.4% in August.
Meanwhile, the CBK’s net foreign assets amounted to KWD 10.19 billion in August, up from KWD 8.91 billion in the corresponding month of 2017, recording an annual growth of 14.4%
As for local banks, the sector’s total assets amounted to KWD 64.35 billion in August, up from KWD 62.78 billion, registering an annual increase of 2.5%, whereas on a monthly basis, assets declined 0.1%.
Finally, net foreign assets for local banks operating in Kuwait fell by 4.5% to KWD 7.19 billion in August, compared with KWD 7.53 billion in the same period of 2017, but fell by 1% from the previous month, the CBK’s data showed.
