Commercial bank lending in Bahrain is expected to pick up after a slump, and the plunge of oil prices is not hurting liquidity in the banking system, Central Bank of Bahrain Governor Rasheed Al Maraj said yesterday (February 24).

Domestic assets of banks in Bahrain shrank four per cent from a year earlier in November, the most recent month for which data is available, said a report in the Gulf Daily News (GDN), our sister publication.

Lending to the private sector fell six per cent, its seventh decrease in a row and the biggest monthly drop in the series.

However, Al Maraj said, on the sidelines of an economic conference: “Overall lending may be dropping because of repayment, but the underlying growth in consumer lending and some of the corporates are still doing well.

“In view of some of the big projects coming on stream in a year or so, I think this will start picking up,” he asserted. - TradeArabia News Service