Saudi Central Bank Data Show Private Sector Credit Up 6.2% to SAR 3.22 Trillion

By The Edge Research Team

Saudi banks’ credit to the private sector reached SAR 3.22 trillion at the end of September, 6.2% more than a year earlier, according to figures in the Saudi Central Bank (SAMA) monthly statistical bulletin.

For Saudi borrowers and savers, the figures show lending still expanding faster than deposits, while consumer prices rose 1.9% from a year earlier. Broad money and total bank deposits each grew 4.8%. In The Edge’s reading, the steady shift of savings into time deposits, together with September’s quarter point rise in the repo rate, makes the cost of funding, rather than loan demand, the main variable for bank lending into the year end.

The bulletin, published on 29 October, covers money supply, bank balance sheets, reserve assets, interest rates and prices to the end of September. Its consumer price data come from the General Authority for Statistics.

Private sector credit rises in every month of the past year

Bank credit to the private sector, which combines loans, advances and overdrafts with discounted bills, rose 0.9% in September from August. That added SAR 27.8 billion in a single month.

Loans, advances and overdrafts alone reached SAR 3.19 trillion, up 6.2% from a year earlier. Bills discounted were a small part of the total, at SAR 22.1 billion.

Including SAR 109.2 billion of investments in private securities, total bank claims on the private sector reached SAR 3.32 trillion. That was 6.0% more than in September 2025.

Bank credit and total claims have each risen in every one of the 12 months since September 2025. Since December 2025, total claims are up 5.6%, an addition of SAR 177.1 billion.

Bank credit to the private sector stood at 104.5% of total bank deposits in September, a ratio The Edge calculates from the bulletin. A year earlier it was 103.2%. Total deposits include government accounts, so the ratio is a broad funding measure, not the regulatory loan to deposit ratio.

Bank claims on the private sector (in SAR billions)

End of period; excludes banks’ off balance sheet data, as the bulletin states. Figures are rounded to one decimal from the bulletin’s SAR millions; changes in the text are calculated from the unrounded figures.

Time deposits lift the deposit base 4.8% in a year

Total bank deposits rose 4.8% from a year earlier to SAR 3.08 trillion. Time and savings deposits drove the gain, rising 22.9% to SAR 1.42 trillion. Demand deposits were 4.9% lower than a year earlier, at SAR 1.40 trillion.

September is the first month in the bulletin’s 13-month table in which time and savings deposits exceeded demand deposits. They made up 46.1% of all deposits, against 39.3% a year earlier. Over the same 12 months the demand share eased to 45.7% from 50.4%.

Government entities and private customers both added term money. Government time and savings deposits rose 32.4% to SAR 665.1 billion. Those of businesses and individuals rose 15.7% to SAR 752.1 billion.

Money supply and bank deposits (in SAR billions)

End of period. M3 also includes other quasi money deposits: residents’ foreign currency deposits, marginal deposits for letters of credit, outstanding remittances and banks’ repo transactions with the private sector. Figures are rounded to one decimal from the bulletin’s SAR millions; changes in the text are calculated from the unrounded figures.

Broad money grows 4.8% and term accounts gain share

Broad money, M3, reached SAR 3.32 trillion at the end of September, up 4.8% from a year earlier. M2, which adds time and savings deposits to currency and demand deposits, grew faster, at 7.0%.

The narrower M1 measure was 3.7% lower on the year because demand deposits shrank. Currency outside banks, the other part of M1, grew 4.3% to SAR 247.5 billion.

Other quasi money deposits, most of them residents’ foreign currency deposits, were 16.7% lower at SAR 253.6 billion. They made up 7.6% of M3 in September.

Reserves stay 3.4% above a year earlier as foreign securities grow 16%

Reserve assets reached SAR 1.75 trillion at the end of September, 3.4% more than a year earlier. Investments in foreign securities, the largest component, rose 16.0% to SAR 1.14 trillion.

Securities made up 65.5% of reserves, against 58.3% a year earlier. Reserves were equivalent to 52.5% of broad money, close to the 53.3% of September 2025.

Reserve assets (in SAR billions)

End of period. Figures are rounded to one decimal from the bulletin’s SAR millions; changes in the text are calculated from the unrounded figures.

Month on month, the September figures were softer. Reserve assets were 4.4% lower than in August. Foreign currency and deposits abroad fell by SAR 78.4 billion.

Broad money eased 0.16%, its third consecutive monthly dip after June’s SAR 3.38 trillion.

SAMA raises its repo rate a quarter point and interbank rates climb

The central bank raised its repo rate by 25 basis points to 4.50% on 16 September. The reverse repo rate rose to 4.00%. It was the first increase since July 2023 in the bank’s published repo rate history.

The three month SAIBOR averaged 5.01% in September, up from 4.83% in August. It was still 25 basis points lower than in September 2025.

Average yields on 52-week SAMA bills rose to 4.46% from 4.10% in August. Yields on 13-week bills rose to 4.16% from 3.91%.

Consumer prices were unchanged from August on the general index. Annual inflation was 1.9%, and the repo rate now stands 2.6 percentage points above it, a gap The Edge calculates from the two published rates.

Policy and money market rates (in %)

Repo and reverse repo as printed for the month; SAIBOR and bill yields are monthly averages.

Figures are from the Saudi Central Bank’s Monthly Statistical Bulletin for September 2026, published 29 October 2026, and its repo rate history; consumer price data in the bulletin are from the General Authority for Statistics. Growth rates the bulletin does not print, such as the 6.2% rise in private sector credit, are The Edge’s calculations, as are other percentages, ratios, shares and counts not attributed to a source; prose and table figures are rounded.

Sources: Saudi Central Bank, General Authority for Statistics, The Edge.

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