The Central Bank of Egypt (CBE) has issued a report that revealed that the ratio of non-performing loans accounted for 10.7% of the total gross loans at the end of March 2012, compared to 10.9% at the end of December 2011. The ratio of loan loss provisions to non-performing loans registered 96.2% at the end of March 2012, compared to 94.6% at the end of December 2011. According to the Central Bank of Egypt's report, the loans offered to the private sector accounted for 81.5% of the total gross loans. The average ratio of local-currency liquidity registered 55.5% and that of foreign-currency liquidity registered 53.7%. The capital base to risk weighted assets registered 15.5%, net worth to assets ratio stood at 6.3%, net interest margin reached 2.6%, return on average assets was 0.8% and return on average equity was 11.7% at the end of March 2012. The report adds that the number of banks' branches in Egypt increased by three to reach 3613 in Q1 of 2012.
