By Pratap John
Chief Business Reporter

Project lending and the expanding population will see bank lending in Qatar grow by 10.5% in 2015, QNB has said in a new report.
The overall loan book grew by 17.3% year-on-year in August from 15% in July, QNB said in its latest “Monthly monitor”.
Public sector lending grew by 0.8% year-on-year while lending to the private and foreign sectors grew strongly by 25.1% and 40.6% respectively.
Banking asset growth rose to 11.8% in August compared with 10.6% in July on the expansion of credit, the report said.
Foreign assets grew by 10.1% year-on-year, driven by expansion in credit (40.6%); while domestic assets grew by 13.2%, also driven by the growth in domestic credit (15%).
“We expect growth in bank assets to reach 10.5% in 2015, increasingly driven by project lending and population growth,” QNB said.
The growth in bank deposits fell in August on lower public sector deposits, it said.
Bank deposits year-on-year growth fell to 7.2% in August 2015 from 8.4% in July.
Public sector deposits contracted by 12.3%, private sector deposits grew by 9.9%, while non-resident deposits doubled, growing by 117.9%.
“We expect deposit growth to reach 9.5% in 2015 reflecting strong population growth,” QNB said.
Qatar’s population grew by 10.2% year-on-year in August to reach 2.29mn, driven by the large ramp up in infrastructure spending.
The  male  population  rose by 10.5%  year-on-year, reaching 1.75mn in August while the female  population  increased by 9.1%  year-on-year over the same period, reaching 0.54mn.
We expect Qatar’s ongoing investment programme to continue to attract expatriates, resulting in  overall population growth of  9% in 2015.
Qatar’s international reserves fell to $40.9bn in August from $43.8bn in July, the monthly monitor showed.
In months of prospective import cover, international reserves fell to 7.3months of imports from 7.8 months in July.
“We expect international reserves to reach $46bn at end-2015, equivalent to eight months of import cover,” QNB said.
According to QNB Qatar’s crude oil production fell to 613,000 barrels per day (bpd) in July from 664,000bpd in June.
Brent crude oil price fell to $48.4 at  end-September compared to $54.2  at  end-August.
“We expect Qatar’s crude oil production  to stabilise; we  also forecast that Brent crude  oil price will average  $55.4per  barrel,  close  to its average so far this year,” QNB said.
The QNB report showed Qatar’s broad  money (M2) growth falling to 6.2% in August from 8.7% in July.
This was mainly due to the slowdown in the growth of quasi money from 11.3% in July to 7.2% in August, while growth in narrow money (M1) accelerated to 3% in August from 1.6% in July.
“We expect M2 growth to pick up, reaching 9% by end-2015 as strong population growth is projected to drive deposit growth,” QNB said.