Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain – 16 March 2025 – The Central Bank of Bahrain’s (CBB) Board of Directors held its first meeting for the year 2025, chaired by Mr. Hassan Khalifa Al Jalahma on Sunday, 16 March 2025.

The Board reviewed the topics on the agenda and approved the CBB’s annual report and audited financial statements for the year 2024. The Board also discussed the CBB’s investment policy for 2025, and reviewed the CBB’s activities thus far in 2025.

The Board also reviewed key monetary and banking indicators for the year 2024 including the money supply, which increased by BD0.3 billion to reach BD 16.3 billion at the end of December 2024, compared to the same period in 2023. As for retail banks, total private deposits increased to around BD14.2 billion at the end of December 2024, an increase of 0.4% compared to the end of December 2023. The outstanding balance of total loans and credit facilities extended to resident economic sectors increased to BD12.3 billion at the end of December 2024, an increase of 4.6% compared to the end of 2023, with the Business Sector accounting for 42.3% and the Personal Sector at 48.3% of total loans and credit facilities.  The balance sheet of the banking system (retail banks and wholesale sector banks) increased to $247.8 billion at the end of December 2024, an increase of 3.9% compared to the end December of 2023.

Point of Sales (POS) data for January 2025 totaled 21.2 million transactions (77.4% of which were contactless), an increase of 25.4% compared to the same period in 2024. The total value of POS transactions for January 2025 totaled BD 433.0 million (51.9% of which were contactless), an increase of 14.6% compared to the same period in 2024.

The banking sector maintained a high level of capital adequacy and liquidity, as the capital adequacy ratio of the banking sector reached 21.2% in Q4 2024 compared with 19.7% in Q4 2023. The capital adequacy ratio for the various banking sectors was 32.0% for conventional retail banks, 16.9% for conventional wholesale banks, 24.6% for Islamic retail banks, and 19.6% for Islamic wholesale banks in Q4 2024.

The total number of registered Collective Investment Undertakings (CIUs) as of January 2025 stood at 1741 CIUs, compared to 1678 funds as of January 2024. The net asset value (NAV) of the CIUs increased from US $11.139 billion in Q4 2023 to US $11.170 billion in Q4 2024, reflecting an increase of 0.3%. The NAV of Bahrain domiciled CIUs decreased from US $4.309 billion in Q4 2023 to US $4.268 billion in Q4 2024, reflecting a decrease of 1%. The NAV of overseas domiciled CIUs increased from US $6.830 billion in Q4 2023 to US $6.902 billion in Q4 2024, reflecting an increase of 1.1%. Additionally, the NAV of Shari’a-compliant CIUs increased from US $1.618 billion in Q4 2023 to US $1.715 billion in Q4 2024, reflecting an increase of 6%.