By: Mahmoud Gamal
Dubai – Mubasher: The UAE's banks sector is expected to grow in the fourth quarter of 2017, compared to the comparative period in 2016 due to the political tension in the GCC, which affected major companies, some analysts told Mubasher.
Banks' profits surged 6% to AED 29.1 billion in the first nine months of 2017 from AED 27.5 billion in the year-ago period.
Constant growth
The UAE's banks are expected to achieve positive annual results, according to Hermes Group.
The banks sector may continue to grow amid more operative and crediting activities in the fourth quarter of 2017, said Tariq Qaqish, asset manager at MENACorp.
The sector will sustain regular growth rates, backed by major banks, such as First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), Dubai Islamic Bank (DIB), and Emirates NBD, Qaqish added.
Perhaps the annual growth of the UAE's banks sector in 2017 would not be as high as in 2016, owing to the unstable geopolitical situation, the analyst revealed.
That was a major challenge facing the UAE-based companies, which in return would weigh on their capability to secure loans, Qaqish commented.
Cars, properties sales; further challenges
Properties and cars sales increased the banks’ crediting activities, and may boost the sector’s results in Q4-17, Fadi El-Ghattis, MindCraft Consultants’ CEO, remarked.
Meanwhile, small banks are still undergoing pressures in their operations, which could drag their results down in the fourth quarter of 2017, El-Ghattis noted.
Also, personal loans are projected to slow down after levying the value-added tax (VAT), the CEO concluded.
The UAE began imposing the VAT as of 1 January 2018.
Translated by: Muhammad Khalid
