Doha, Qatar: Qatar’s banking sector showed resilience and expansion as the total assets of the sector increased by 1.9 percent month-on-month (MoM) in September 2025, reaching QR2.151 trillion. Meanwhile the total assets moved up by 5.1 percent year-to-date (YTD) in the same period.
The total assets moved up by 5.1 percent in September 2025 compared to a growth of 3.9 percent in 2023/2024. The assets grew by an average 5.7 percent over the past five years (2020-2024). The liquid assets to total assets stood at healthy 31 percent level in September 2025, according to a report released by QNB Financial Services (QNBFS), yesterday.
The monthly report highlighted the total assets, loans, and deposits. The sector’s loans climbed up by 0.8 percent MoM to reach QR1,422bn in September this year. The overall loan book moved up MoM in the review period as result of flat performance from the private sector and growth in public sector loans.
Loans expanded by 5.6 percent in September 2025 against FY2024, compared to a growth of 4.6 percent in 2024. Loans grew by an average 5.4 percent over the past five years (2020-2024).
On the other hand the deposits by commercial banks inched up 0.7 percent during September 2025 to reach QR1,051.2bn. The public sector deposits receded 2.7 percent MoM, while private sector deposits increased 3 percent. Non-resident deposits climbed up by 1.4 percent.
The deposits gained by 2.4 percent in September 2025, compared to an increase by 4.1 percent in 2024. They grew by an average 3.9% over the past five years (2020-2024).
In September this year, the public sector deposits contributed 34.1 percent to the total deposits, private sector (47.8 percent) and non-resident (18.1 percent).
The overall loan book expansion in September was primarily driven by increased lending to both the public and private sectors. Public sector loans grew by 11.8 percent YTD and recorded a rise of 2.3 percent MoM. Within this category, loans to the government segment witnessed a rise of 40.4 percent YTD and 6.3 percent MoM of total public sector loans.
The government institutions saw an increase of 0.5 percent YTD and 0.1 percent MoM. However, loans to semi-government institutions declined by 0.3 percent YTD in September this year.
The private sector loans also increased by 3.1 percent YTD in September and grew by 0.2 percent on monthly basis. The key drivers of private sector loan growth included the contractors, real estate, consumption and others and services segments.
The contractors segment saw an impressive increase of 11.8 percent YTD but a decline of 0.4 percent MoM. The real estate sector saw a growth of 1 percent YTD and increase of 0.1 percent MoM. Meanwhile, loans to general trade, consumption and others and services sectors increased by 4.7 percent, 1.8 percent, and 3.2 percent YTD.
The total domestic private sector credit facilities saw an increase of 3.1 percent YTD and 0.2 percent in the review period.
The loans to deposits ratio remained flat at 135 percent in September 2025. While the loan provisions have increased from 2.4 percent in 2020 to 4 percent in 2023 and stood at 4.3 percent as of September 2025 this year as banks have been provisioning for Stage 2 and Stage 3 loans mainly emanating from contracting and real estate sectors, the data revealed.
The data also revealed that the resident deposits rose by 4.2 percent YTD and up by 0.5 percent month-on-month. The non-resident deposits decreased by 5.1 percent and rose by 1.4 percent YTD and M-o-M in September 2025.
On the deposits side, the public sector deposits increased by 0.5 percent YTD and recorded a decline of 2.7 percent month-on-month. The government segment of the public sector deposits saw a growth of 3.2 percent and decline of 2.2 percent MoM in September 2025. The government institutions grew 6.2 percent over the year and grew by 3.2 percent MoM.
On the other hand the total private sector deposits recorded a 6.9 percent rise in 2025, dipping by 3 percent MoM. Within this category, personal deposits grew by 5.1 percent YTD and 0.1 percent on monthly basis. On the other hand, companies and institutions dropped by 9.3 percent YTD and 6.8 percent MoM.
