The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority’s monthly bulletin has shown that the funding of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) by the banking sector and funding firms has remained stable at a rate of 6.2 percent of the total facilities offered.
This covers the second quarter of 2019, which witnessed the same rate in the first quarter.
But the new data shows that this year’s funding rates are higher than in 2018, in a sign that the public and private sectors are willing to enhance the contribution of SMEs to the local economy in line with Saudi Vision 2030.
Among others, the Vision seeks to boost the contribution of SMEs to the GDP.
SAMA’s bulletin also revealed a 19 percent increase in sales for July at points of sale across Saudi Arabia, reaching around SAR22.77 billion (USD6 billion) compared to SAR19.18 billion (USD5.11 billion) during the same period of 2018.
These sales occurred through 129.7 million transactions and around 404,200 devices, added the bulletin.
During July, ATM withdrawals dropped slightly by 0.4 percent and reached around SAR63.15 billion (USD16.84 billion) compared to the withdrawals of 2018 that stood at SAR63.42 billion (USD16.91 billion).
This coincided with the value of assets of public and private funds in Saudi Arabia making unprecedented gains in the second quarter of 2019, reaching SAR323 billion (USD86.1 billion) compared to SAR310 billion (USD82.6 billion) during the first quarter of the same year.
According to SAMA, there was a 4.1 percent increase in the values of public and private funds in Q2 of 2019 while that of private investment funds grew by 3.5 percent, and public investment funds by 5.3 percent.
