By Ntombi Mhlongo
The inflow of the Southern African Customs Union (SACU) has seen the Kingdom of Eswatini’s gross official reserves reach E9.3 billion at the end of April 2023.
This is reflected in the Monthly Statistical Release issued by the Central Bank of Eswatini (CBE) for March and April 2023. The analysis reflects that the E9.3 billion depicts a notable increase of 22.3 per cent month-on-month and 7.4 per cent year-on-year due to an inflow of SACU receipts at the beginning of April 2023.
The CBE mentioned that at this level, the reserves were sufficient to cover 3.0 of imports of goods and services, higher than the 2.5 months reported in March 2023.
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Also contained in the analysis is that credit extended to the private sector amounted to E17.5 billion at the end of March 2023, higher by 0.5 per cent from the previous month and 10.7 per cent year-on-year. Growth was driven mainly by credit to other sectors of the domestic economy.
Credit to businesses and households and non-profit institutions serving
households (NPISH) receded. On the other hand, credit extended to other sectors grew significantly by 23.0 per cent month-on-month but fell by 7.4 per cent over the year to settle at E921.7 million at the end of March 2023.
The month-on-month expansion was observed in all subsectors, credit to other financial corporations, credit to public nonfinancial corporations as well as credit to local government.
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It is also stated that credit to other financial corporations increased by 28.8 per cent to E564.4 million; credit to public non-financial corporations grew by 16.1 per cent to E290.3 million and credit to local government improved by 9.5 per cent to E66.9 million, over the period under review.
Credit extended to businesses closed the review month at E8.5 billion, lower by 0.8 per cent relative to February 2023 but grew by 20.8 per cent year-on-year. The month-on-month decline in credit to businesses was recorded in sectors such as distribution and tourism, construction, community, and social and personal services.
The decrease in credit to businesses was partially offset by increases in sub-sectors like mining, quarrying, real, manufacturing, agriculture and forestry, transport, and communication.
