Photo Credit: Central Bank Of Eswatini
By Ntokozo Nkambule
The country’s Gross Official Reserves have increased by 13.7% for the period of December 2022 – January 2023 to settle at E8.7 billion.
The growth in reserves was boosted by the quarterly inflow of Southern African Customs Union (SACU) receipts at the beginning of January 2023 coupled with an inflow of Rands from trades with commercial banks.
The Central Bank of Eswatini Monthly Statistical Release for December 2022-January 2023 notes that the reserves are enough to cover 2.9 months of imports of goods and services, reflecting an improvement from the 2.5 months observed in December 2022.
Another notable development from the Monthly Statistical Release was the increase of 0.4 percent credit extended to the private sector.
“Credit extended to the private sector went up by 0.4 percent from November 2022 and 7.3 percent year-on-year to E17.3 billion at the end of December 2022. Contributing to the increase in private sector credit was credit to other sectors of the domestic economy and businesses. This growth was, however, partly offset by credit to households & non-profit institutions serving households (NPISH) which, declined over the month under review” notes the CBE.
Credit extended to other sectors also increased by 2.4 percent, while credit extended to businesses in the period under review increased by 0.6 percent from November 2022 and 21.7 percent year-on-year to reach E8.5 billion at the end of December 2022.
The CBE notes that the increase in credit was observed in the following subsectors; community, social & personal services (4.4 percent) as well as agriculture & forestry (3.8 percent). Against this backdrop, a fall was observed in credit to the following subsectors; mining & quarrying (-53.7 percent), distribution & tourism (-4.1 percent), construction (-2.3 percent), transport & communication (-2.2 percent) and real estate (-0.8 percent).
Also worth noting in the Monthly Release is that the banks’ assets’ overall liquidity position grew by 14.9 percent month-on-month and fell by 3.6 percent year-on-year to E8.0 billion at the end of December 2022. The month-on-month improvement stemmed from an increase in the banks’ balances with the Central Bank, cash holdings in their tills, balances with other domestic banks as well as investment in government securities.
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