Banking assets registered a steady growth throughout 2025 as they increased by over AED780 billion throughout the year to an estimated AED5.34 trillion by the end of December 2025, as compared to an estimated AED4.56 trillion at the end of December 2024.
The Central Bank of the UAE (CBUAE) stated that the gross banks’ assets grew by 1.7 percent between the end of November 2025 and the end of December 2025, expanding from AED5,251.9 billion to AED5,339.9 billion, respectively.
Gross credit has also risen by 1.5 percent between the end of November 2025 and the end of December 2025, between AED2,532.9 billion and AED2,570.3 billion. Two-thirds of the overall credit growth was backed by growth of credit in foreign currency (by AED25.8 billion) and the rest by an increase of domestic credit (by AED11.6 billion).
The rise in domestic credit is due to the increase of credit to the private sector by 0.6 percent (contributed with 0.4 p.p. to the overall growth of 0.6 percent) and credit to the Government-Related Entities (GREs) by 1.8 percent, followed by the growth of credit to the OFC by 10.9 percent.
Banks’ deposits surged 2.2 percent, from AED3,236.6 billion at the end of November 2025 to AED3,307 billion at the end of December 2025.
The growth in the deposits of the banks was propelled by the growth of the resident deposits by 1.3 percent to AED3,009.2 billion and the non-resident deposits by 12.2 percent to AED 297.8 billion.
In the resident deposits, private sector deposits rose 2.8 percent, recording 2,249.6 billion, and GRE deposits increased by 4.8 percent, reaching AED296.2 billion.
Simultaneously, OFC deposits were also growing by 12.9 percent to AED70.0 billion, and government sector deposits were also declining by 10.4 percent to AED393.4 billion at the end of December 2025.
CBUAE also added that there was a growth in money supply aggregate M1 by 2.2 percent between AED1,048.1 billion at the end of November 2025 and AED1,071.5 billion at the end of December 2025.
Therefore, the growth was facilitated by a growth in the currency in circulation outside banks by 1.9 percent and in monetary deposits by 2.3 percent. The aggregate money supply M2 grew by 3.2 per cent, between AED2,669.3 billion at the end of November 2025 and AED2,754.7 billion at the end of December 2025.
M2 expanded by the growth of AED62.0 billion in Quasi-Monetary Deposits. The corporate sector deposits surged by 3.8 percent and had the major contribution to the monthly growth of M2, providing 1.9 p.p. (out of a total 3.2 percent), primarily driven by the growth of their AEDdemand and savings deposits.
The money supply aggregate M3 also showed an increase of 1.2 percent as reported by the end of December 2025, as compared to the end of November 2025, AED3,255.4 billion and AED3,216.3 billion, respectively. M3 increased due to an increase in M2.
The monetary base grew by 5.4 percent, which was AED850.1 billion at the end of November 2025 and AED895.7 billion at the end of December 2025.
The growth in monetary base occurred due to the rise in: currency issued by 1.9 percent, and banks and Other Financial Corporations (OFC) current accounts and overnight deposits of banks at CBUAE by 63.4 percent, which overshadowed the poorer growth in reserve account by 9.1 percent. Thus, the monetary bills and Islamic certificates of deposits did not change much.
