ABU DHABI: Standard and Poor's (SandP) Global Ratings today forecast that Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) banks' good performance should continue throughout 2024, absent any unexpected shock, thanks to increasing lending volumes, higher fee income, stable margins, and strong cost efficiency. In a recent report released today, SandP added the non-oil sectors in Saudi Arabia and the UAE spurred 10.4% annualised lending growth for the top 45 GCC banks in the first half of 2024, up from 6.7% in 2023. The agency noted that a prolonged period of high interest rates led to profit margins remaining stable at 2.7%, noting that banks maintained strong profitability in the first half of the year, with the return on assets increasing to 1.74%, from 1.65% at the end of 2023. SandP expects the Federal Reserve to cut rates by 150 bps between September 2024 and end-2025. Source: Emirates News Agency
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