Between strategy and execution... how do we judge the campaign?

Let's start with a key figure that much ofJuly's coverage got wrong. Several reports indicated that bank credit was"up 16.2 percent year-on-year" — a figure that actually correspondsto May 2025, not May 2026. According to SAMA's May 2026 bulletin, credit to theprivate sector stands at SR3.2 trillion, reflecting only 6.6 percentyear-on-year growth. The real story lies in this deceleration: credit growthwas consistently between 16 and 18 percent for much of last year, slowed toaround 8 percent by March, and further decreased to 6.6 percent by May, holdingat 6.8 percent in June. From January to May, lending grew by only 2.2 percent,less than half the pace observed during the same period in 2025.

So how did banks report record profits while lendingslowed down significantly? The impact of the slowdown was not evenlydistributed; it mostly affected one type of borrower: households.

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