Abu Dhabi, UAE – Banking and monetary indicators in the UAE continued their positive performance during the first quarter of this year. And also on a monthly basis during last March.
Total banking assets rose 1.5% month-on-month, reaching AED 5.556 trillion by the end of March 2026, compared to AED 5.472 trillion by the end of February. Total bank credit rose 2.5% to AED 2.696 trillion.
According to the Monetary and Banking Developments Report for March 2026 issued today by the Central Bank, bank deposits increased by 1.4% to 3.446 trillion dirhams by the end of March 2026. Compared to about 3.4 trillion dirhams at the end of February 2026.
The report explained that the growth in total credit was supported by an increase of 52.4 billion dirhams in domestic credit. The main driver of this growth was credit granted to the government sector, which rose by 6.9%, contributing 0.8 percentage points to the total growth of domestic credit.
Credit to government-linked entities also rose by 6%, adding 0.9 percentage points. In addition to a positive contribution from credit granted to the private sector, which rose 1.1%, contributing 0.8 percentage points.
The report indicated that the growth in bank deposits was mainly driven by a 1.3% increase in residents’ deposits to AED 3.139 trillion. While non-resident deposits increased by 1.8% to reach 307.2 billion dirhams.
According to the report, the largest contribution to resident deposits came from government-linked entities, which recorded a growth of 16.3% to reach 363.1 billion dirhams. Government sector deposits also increased by 9% to 427.3 billion dirhams, while private sector deposits reached 2.278 trillion dirhams. Deposits by other financial institutions amounted to AED 70.2 billion by the end of March 2026.
Gold stock rises
According to the monthly statistical bulletin for March issued by the Central Bank. The Central Bank’s gold balance rose during the first quarter by 5.54% to about 40 billion dirhams at the end of March, compared to about 37.9 billion dirhams at the end of December last year.
According to banking operations statistics, the value of transfers in the banking sector in the Emirates via the Emirates money transfer system during the first quarter of this year amounted to about 6.66 trillion dirhams. Distributed at approximately 4.058 trillion dirhams for transfers carried out by banks, and 2.602 trillion dirhams for transfers carried out by dealers.
The value of checks circulated using their images exceeded AED 346.737 billion during the first quarter through more than 5.51 million checks.
