RIYADH: UAE banks witnessed an 8.5 percent increase in their total capital and reserves to 438.6 billion dirhams ($119.5 billion) in January 2023 from 404.3 billion dirhams during the same month last year. According to the Central Bank of UAE’s monthly report on the monetary, banking and financial developments, the aggregate capital and reserves of banks in Dubai touched 211 billion dirhams in January 2023, showing a 9.5 percent rise from the same period last year. Abu Dhabi banks’ capital and reserves saw an 8.9 percent increase reaching 194.9 billion, while banks in other emirates totaled 32.7 billion dirhams in the first month of this year. In the fourth quarter of 2022, the UAE banks’ capitalization amounted to 429.7 billion dirhams showing a 4 percent increase over the year-ago period. The report further noted that local banks’ capitalization, which comprised 86 percent of the total, stood at 379.3 billion dirhams in January 2023. On the other hand, local banks’ equity grew 8.31 percent from 350.2 billion dirhams the year before. Foreign banks made up 13.5 percent of the total capital and reserves and amounted to 59.3 billion dirhams at the end of January 2023, an increase of 9.6 percent from the year before. The value of UAE banks’ assets, including acceptance certificates, increased to 3.66 trillion dirhams in January, recording 11.5 percent growth over 3.29 trillion dirhams recorded during the same period last year. According to the report, total bank credit increased 4.1 percent annually to 1.87 trillion dirhams in January 2023 compared to roughly 1.8 trillion dirhams in January 2022. The report also stated that the overall bank deposits climbed 19.2 percent year-on-year to 2.23 trillion dirhams at the end of January, which is an increase of 358.9 billion dirhams, compared to 1.87 trillion dirhams in the same period last year. Compared to the 2.22 trillion dirhams at the end of last December, the CBUAE reported that bank deposits increased monthly by 0.5 percent. It attributed this increase to the growth in resident deposits, which increased by 0.8 percent due to a rise in government and private sector deposits of 1.7 percent and 1.3 percent.