JEDDAH: Saudi money supply rose 8.1 percent on the year in January, and the central bank's foreign assets inched up 1 percent year on year, data from the Saudi Arabian Monetary Agency (SAMA) showed Sunday. M3, the broadest measure of money supply, came in at SR1.087 trillion ($289.9 billion) in January, up from SR1.006 trillion in the same month a year ago and from SR1.080 trillion in December, according to data posted on SAMA's website. SAMA's net foreign assets rose to SR1.668 trillion in January from SR1.651 trillion in December and SAR1.535 trillion in January last year, the data showed. Saudi Arabia, which has filled its coffers with surplus income from oil exports this decade, has drawn on its reserves to fund record budgets and keep its $400 billion five-year infrastructure development program on track. While this spending helped the Arab world's largest economy grow last year, according to the Kingdom's budget released last December, banks have remained hesitant to extend credit. Lending to the private sector edged higher to SR781.6 billion last month from SR775.8 billion in the month earlier and up from SR735.6 billion in January 2010. During the boom years, bank claims on the private sector tripled between 2003 and 2008.
