System loans increased 0.6% M-o-M in November, compared to a minor decline of 0.1% M-o-M in October, driven by an acceleration in growth in retail loans M-o-M to 1.1% M-o-M in November (compared to a contraction of 0.6% M-o-M in October). Corporate loan growth slowed slightly in November to 0.4% M-o-M, down from 0.6% M-o-M a month earlier. On a Y-o-Y basis, loan growth was broadly unchanged in November compared to October, at 6.5% Y-o-Y, although a slight acceleration in both retail and corporate loan growth has driven some pick-up in total loan growth in Kuwait at the system level in the past three-four months. On a Y-o-Y basis, corporate loans increased 4.2% and retail loans by 10.8%. Total deposits fell 0.7% M-o-M in November, compared to a drop of 1.4% M-o-M in October, due to a M-o-M decline in private sector deposits. On a Y-o-Y basis, total deposit growth slowed sharply to 0.6% Y-o-Y in November, down from 3.9% in October and 5.2% in September, also driven by lower deposits from the private sector, down 0.7% Y-o-Y. Public sector deposits, however, increased 8.2% Y-o-Y in November.   Deposit growth has been below that of loan growth for most of the year 2015, and the loan-to-deposit ratio has increased to 86.1% in November 2015, compared to 81.4% in December 2014. Nevertheless, liquidity has not tightened as much as it has in other GCC countries, and funding costs have not yet seen any major increase at large for the banking sector. We believe, however, that lower oil prices, the tightening in liquidity in the rest of the region, and the slight pick-up we are expecting to see in loan this year in Kuwait, driven by government spending, could be factors driving down net interest margins slightly for Kuwait banks in 2016. (Central Bank of Kuwait, Elena Sanchez-Cabezudo, Rajae Aadel)